


Love Letters.

by alphe_ratz



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: ALL THE BISEXUALS, Angst, F/M, Fluff, I don't know, M/M, Spoiler Alert - Freeform, To All The Boys I've Loved Before AU, background pulitzer being a complete asshole, but not really, darcy's kinda a dick, davey has sweaty palms but you didn't hear it from me, davey's kinda out of character, he kinda shout shout, i'm shit at summaries lmao just read the damn book, it's complete but i'm going to upload it weekly, just like, or fic, they make out too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2020-11-01 12:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20815151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphe_ratz/pseuds/alphe_ratz
Summary: Based on the Netflix film and book by Jenny Han: To All The Boys I've loved before.I write a letter when I have a crush so intense I don't know what else to do. There are five total: Romeo from camp, Katherine from seventh grade, Racetrack from Homecoming, Specs from Model UN, and Jack, but he's my sister's boyfriend.And one day, the letters got out.





	1. Burnt Turkey and Love Letters

**Word Count: 2632**

* * *

_The Forbidden Kiss._  
_We knew that it was wrong, that he was betrothed to my sister._  
_But if this wasn't what he wanted, then why did he come to the field of desire?  
_ _It was fated that we should meet like this._

“Hey!” A pillow flew across the room, colliding with a face, “Are we hanging out or what?” A small boy, no older than eleven, Leslie Jacobs, stood in the doorway, dressed in a green button up shirt with his hair gelled back, he looked smart, but that seemed to be a running trait in the Jacobs family. He looked at the teenage boy, about seventeen, David Jacobs, who was led flat on his made-up bed with his legs up against the wall, hair messy and a book in hand,

“I just want to finish this chapter,” David replied, not even bothering to look over at his brother,

At the distant sound of clattering pots and pans erupted from downstairs and a loud “Oh!” , he looked up from his book at the younger boy across from him in confusion,

He quickly marked his page and swung his legs around to face his brother, “Should we go down and help him?” David asked him, Les just shrugged but a girl, their sister, Sarah Jacobs, a few years older than David, came from down the hall, stopping at the door frame,

“He wants to do it himself, but please come and help me set the table,” She asked, leaning against the frame, she smiled, almost smug but still gentle and friendly, Les dropped the pillow on the floor, following her downstairs, sighing, “I hate when dad makes food, it always tastes like butt.”

“Regardless, whatever dad puts in front of you, I want you to take a bite and say 'Mm, just like mum's!' okay?”

“I was still eating smudged peas when mum died!” He answered back.

\---

Finally reaching the empty dining table, just as David and Sarah went to grab an array of cutlery and dishes, there was a knock at the front door, and without a response, whoever was outside opened it, “Hey!” A tall boy walked in, Jack Kelly, sporting a pair of headphones around his neck and his hands and face covered in different coloured paint,

“Hey,” Sarah walked up to him and greeted him with a smile and began walking over to him once she had put the dishes and such down on the table,

“I’m not too late, am I?” He began kicking off his shoes, dropping them just next to the shoe rack lazily, “I was, uh- trying to mediate but I ended up falling asleep,”

David glanced over from where he was at the dining table, just as Sarah bought Jack into a quick peck,

“Smells good, Dr J,” He turned his direction towards the older man, Mayer, in the kitchen, who was currently taking a dish out of the oven,

“Hey, Jack!” Mayer said back quite joyfully as he set down the food on the kitchen counter.

"Davey,” Jack hastily made his way to the table, giving David a nod then a high five with a smile once he was close enough, Jack left David dazed, smiling like an idiot, and went over to talk to Mayer, “So, uh… what's cooking?” he asked.

_\-- _❀_\--_

“Usually, if you just rock this thing back and forth-” The man glanced at the lump of burnt meat that lay in the dish, trying to slice it, having little luck,

“It's supposed to fall off the bone.” Les muttered, leaning on the palm of his hand, on the table, earning him a “Shh,” from his sister,

Mayer looked up to Jack, “Hey, Jack, come hang on to this while I saw, would you?” 

Sarah began to stand up, pushing Jack back down, “Hey, you know what, the electric knife is in the kitchen,” She hurried around to where the dish was, “And it'll have that thing ready to eat in two seconds, looks great, Dad, I'll be back.” She took it away and disappeared behind the wall divider and into the kitchen.

Les slumped back into his chair with a huff, “I can't believe we're not going to see her until Thanksgiving.”

“Hanukkah actually, Scotland's too far to come back for Thanksgiving.” Mayer corrected, sounds from the electric knife in the kitchen could be heard, switching between on and off,

“Wait, are you kidding?" David said, shocked, mouth agape, "We're not gonna see her till Hanukkah?!” He looked upwards from where he was previously slouching in his chair and fiddling with the hem of his jumper,

“Look on the bright side, Sarah won't be taking the car every day, you can practice your driving, and you can take Les to school,”

“I forgot I had to drive with David now…” Les complained, rolling his eyes.

David squinted his eyes at Les," Feel free to take the bus.”

“If you ever need it, I can give you a ride. I'm not disappearing, I'm next door.” Offered Jack, making eye contact with the two siblings,

Les cracked a grin, “Or I can drive, and if we get pulled over, we'll switch places real quick!” He suggested, starting to sit up again,

“Top-notch idea, son.” Mayer gave a smile,

“What'd I miss?” Sarah wandered back in, she was carrying a dish containing meat that was noticeably different, less burnt and more edible,

“We were talking about what a bad driver David is,” Les explained, grinning directly at David,

“Yeah, we were, but we were also talking about airplanes, which speaking of… I have a surprise for you…” Jack spoke up, taking a folded up piece of paper, handing it to Sarah once the dish was sat on the table,

“Oh…?” She hummed as she started to dish up the meal, once everyone had their plates she unfolded it and began to read it over,

“You couldn't come home for Thanksgiving, I figured I'd bring home to you. It's a plane ticket, I'm coming to Scotland.”

“Look at Jack stepping up!” Mayer said gleefully, giving Jack a pat on the back,

“You... You already paid for this?”

“Yeah, I had a Google alert set for flights as soon as you decided you wanted to go to school there.” Jack smiled up at her from his chair, 

“Why?” Her expression fell, but she tried to keep a smile on her face, even if it was fake, a frown tugged at Jack's lips, he stayed silent, not exactly sure what to say,

Les coughed, “Mm... Just like mum's…" He tried to clear the awkward silence that had just drifted over the table. 

\-- ❀ -- 

_ I guess I should tell you a little bit about Jack._  
_He and Sarah have been together for the past two years, but before Sarah even cared that he existed, he was my first boyfriend._  
_Well, space between the words… boy who was a friend.  
_ _I could talk to him about anything, w_ _e just really understood one another._

_ “Okay, would you rather only drink water for the rest of your life, or you can drink whatever you want, but it has to have a drop of pee in it?” David asked Jack, they were both sat on the bleachers, probably their first or second year of high school, spots dotting they’re faces and David sporting a pair of square rimmed glasses._  
_“Clear or yellow?” Jack added on, screwing the lid of his water bottle back on,_  
_“It has to be a little yellow.”_  
_"I mean, pee. Definitely pee. I can't give up Mountain Dew.”  
_ _“Yeah, definitely. Pee's the only answer.”_

_ We didn't stop being friends when Jack and Sarah got together, it was just... different. _

_ “Water. Definitely water.” Sarah was sat between the two of them, _  
_“Yeah, me too, Definitely ” Jack agreed with her, the same question as before, but a different answer, whether it was a change in thought over the year or because of an influence, it was unknown to David, although he had his suspicions._  
  
_They didn't want me to feel left out, so they invited me everywhere, even on dates._  
_They tried to make it as normal as possible, but I still felt like a third wheel._  
_It's not that I wanted to steal my sister's boyfriend or anything._  
_I was super happy for Sarah._  
_She deserves a great guy like Jack._  
_And so I wrote him a letter._  
_I wasn't going to send the letter, it was just for me to understand how I was feeling.  
_ _But really, I guess it was mainly about how sometimes I imagined what it would've been like if I'd realized how I felt about him sooner._

“…Making me look like the bad guy!” David’s ears pricked up, he was sat at his desk, a plain box sat on the surface, containing five letters, one of which being addressed to Jack, the sound of yelling could be heard from just outside the house, on the pavement in the street, the scene illuminated by the few streetlights that decorated the street,

“Do you know how hard that was?” Jack yelled back, just as loud as Sarah, throwing his arms out in frustration,

“You shouldn't have in front of them!” The girl retaliated, almost immediately storming away and back into the house, leaving Jack alone in the glow of the streetlights.

_ My letters are my most secret possessions._  
_There are five total:_  
_Romeo from camp,_  
_Katherine from seventh grade,_  
_Racetrack from Homecoming,_  
_Specs from Model UN,  
_ _and Jack._

_ I write a letter when I have a crush so intense I don't know what else to do._  
_Rereading my letters reminds me of how powerful and how all-consuming my emotions can be,   
_ _Sarah would say I'm being dramatic, but I think drama can be fun…_

_ “ _What are you doing?” Sarah’s voice pulled David out of the void that was his thoughts,

“Nothing.” He replied, peaking his head out from where he was sat, on the floor beside his bed, David stuffed the letter he was holding back into its envelope, then back into a small cardboard box, it was plain, just a pen-written ‘Davey’ on, and he shoved the box underneath a pile of blankets that were just beside his un-made bed,

_ Just as long as nobody else knows about it. _

“Your room's a mess.” Sarah strolled in, leaving the door ajar, there wasn’t a smile sporting her face, nor the same glow in her eyes as before, she sat on the bed, bringing a pillow to her chest, hugging it,

David moved from the floor to his bed, sitting opposite his sister, cross legged, squinting his eyes a little, “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah.” There was something about her tone that didn’t seem quite right to David, her avoided eye-contact and the way she tried to hide half of her face in the plump pillow in her hands,

“Well…?” David encouraged, trying to keep direct eye contact with her, she was probably the only person other than Crutchie that he would willingly hold eye contact with.

“I don't know, I just broke up with Jack.”

“You did what? Why?” He leaned back, putting his weight on his hands, not sure whether to be confused or surprised more,

"Before Mum died, she said I should never go to college with a boyfriend.”

“But you love him.”

“I know.”

“So, do you think you might change your mind?”

“No. No, never." She glanced around his room, changing the subject, "When I was packing for college, I had Dad make a box of things to take to Goodwill. I think you should do it too, I made you a box.”

“I don't really think there's anything I can part with at the moment.”

“Davey, I'm leaving tomorrow. That means you're going to be the oldest sibling. You need to set a good example for Leslie, no gorging on chips before dinner and you really need to clean your room…”

“Can we go back to talking about how you're sad?” David sighed, staring up at the ceiling.

_Sarah says when something is no longer useful, you either donate it, recycle it, or throw it away._  
_I always knew she felt that way about objects but...  
_ _I didn't think she could feel that about a person._

\-- ❀ -- 

“...Will depart from Gate 39.” A voice announced from the speaker, signalling the arrival of Sarah’s plane, David glanced towards her with sympathetic eyes, a few tears welling up,

“Come here.” Sarah opened her arms, embracing him tightly,

“Hey, you need a magazine.” David pulled back, wiping his eyes with his sleeves, sniffling slightly,

“We'll be right back.” Les spoke up, nodding his head, pulling Mayer off with him towards the newsagent in the corner,

“You gonna be okay?” Sarah waited for the pair to leave before turning her focus to David, 

“Did you have to pick the furthest college you could think of? Who am I supposed to eat lunch with?” He pulled back completely, trying to lighten the air,

“I think you should look at this as an opportunity to branch out and make new friends.” She suggested,

“No.”

“You never know what could happen.”

“That's what I'm afraid of.”

“If you need me, I'm a Skype call away.”

“Until you start going to pubs and eating haggis with your Scottish friends, and forget about us.”

“I can promise you, I will never... ever eat haggis.”

“We couldn't decide, so we got you all of them.” Les and Mayer appeared again, holding about ten to fifteen magazines, holding them out to Sarah,

“That's Road & Track, it doesn't sound that interesting, but if you stick with it…” Mayer handed her the magazine, another announcement sounded, so he pulled her in for a hug, “Come here.”

“Alright, I gotta go.” She said, trying to hold back tears of her own. Sarah turned to give each one a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, taking the rest of the magazines, stuffing them in her bag, then began walking towards the gate, dragging a small carry-on suitcase behind her, 

“Think she'll turn around?” Les asked hopefully,

“No, that's not Sarah.” David answered truthfully, though secretly wishing that she would,

“Can we have a dog now?” Les asked,

“No, but that's a nice try.” Mayer ruffled the boy's hair a little, nodding his head as if to say that they should get going at this point.

The journey home was felt off to David, for a reason unknown to him, Sarah’s absence was something that he would have to get used to, but in his mind he couldn’t exactly see anything good happening, of course, fitting in some driving experience would be one thing, but even then, just the thought of having to drive to and from school every day made him anxious, and Les’ insults probably wouldn’t help, though the boy only meant them as a joke, not seriously, and from previous experience, he knew when to stop, he knew where the line was and he never crossed it.

David fiddled with his sleeves, pulling gently at the fraying seams, though, being careful not to fully wreck it, he made a mental note to himself to buy another sweater at some point within the next week seen as messing around with the fraying threads seemed to be a habit of his. He glanced out the window for a moment, noticing how the street lamps and traffic lights reflected off of the wet concrete, creating a mixture of yellow, red, and green, he could hear Mayer and Les bickering, something about whether they bought enough magazines for Sarah, he managed to crack a smile, still sniffing and having to dry his eyes every so often.

_Take a deep breath, Dave  
You'll be just fine._


	2. Carrot Sticks and Headphones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What do you think Sarah’s doing tonight?”
> 
> “Crack.” Les replied casually,
> 
> “Les, why would you say that?” David glanced over, half amused, half shocked,
> 
> “It's how Scottish people say fun."

**Word Count: 2760**

* * *

“David. It's only gonna take a second. Just smile.” Mayer was holding a camera and the three were standing in front of the house, David and Les were holding a chalk plaque each, one read ‘sixth grade’ and the other 'junior year', this was a tradition for the Jacobs family, at the beginning of every school year they'd stand in front of the house and take a photo with the children each holding a plaque that had whatever grade they were going into wrote on it. It was begun by their mother, Esther, and Mayer was reluctant to carry it on at first, after her death, but he decided that keeping her memory alive was what was best.

“Cheese!” Les gave a cheesy smile, scrunching his eyes shut and baring his teeth.

“Sixth grade and junior year, can hardly believe it. Okay, you ready to go?”

“One sec!” Les tossed Mayer the board and David his backpack, before rushing back inside, Mayer turned to David, 

“Give me those. Okay, just drive safely. I gotta go.” The older man dumped the plaques on the passenger seat of his own car, then turning back to be met with David’s anxious and tired looking face, “You’ll be fine, David.”

“Alright.” He replied, not even paying attention, suddenly the ends of his sleeves were looking quite interesting,

“All set.” Les came out wearing a bike helmet, a few stringy cobwebs hanging off of the end, he clicked the buckle, already wandering over towards the car shared between the siblings, though it was mainly Sarah who drove, seen as she was the only one confident enough, and of legal age to.

“That's very funny.” David followed, walking around the driver’s seat, searching around his pockets for the keys, he found them after a moment, promptly unlocking the car and climbing inside, dumping the two bags on the backseat.

“Very necessary.” Les added, jumping into the passenger seat, the hat still firmly attached to his head, still grinning cheekily at his older brother.

_\-- _❀_\--_

School was interesting to say the least, the different cliques roaming the halls, an array of posters covering the walls, the corridor was busy, in fact one bin in the corner had already started filling up and overflowing, David had already collided with a few people, but both sides brushed it off with an apology, with the hallways this busy he assumed that everyone was bumping into each other, besides, it was high school, it's bound to happen. A head of bright ginger hair caught his eye, her curls bounced a little as she walked, and the way she snorted when she laughed simply drove David insane, he thought it was cute and he wasn’t the only one who thought that, and he knew this, which is why he kept his distance, sure they were on good terms but he wasn’t planning on getting any closer to her. But the fact that he thought her cute was something he was sure about, both personality and looks, there was no denying.

In fact, David was so caught up in his “glance” that he wasn’t quite concentrating on where he was going and collided with another student, he stumbled back a little but managed to find his footing and stood there with his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets,

They let out an “Ow!” sound, “Watch where you’re going!” Darcy’s eyes were glued to his phone but he snapped them up to look David in the eyes, but the height difference proved problematic, seen as he was at least half a head shorter than David.

“Oh, my God, Darcy- I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention.”

“Oh, it's you.”

__ Darcy,  
__ Darcy Reid.  
__ We used to be best friends, but post-middle school,  
_ for reasons having to do with his popularity and my lack thereof,  
_ __ we are decidedly not.

David shifted awkwardly on his feet and raised an eyebrow,

“Cute jumper.” He looked at the basic blue jumper David wore, his collar was poking out at the top and the bottom of his shirt was untucked and sticking out the bottom, but he made it work, or rather, Les made it work for him. “Classy.”

“It’s vintage, I got it on Etsy.” He explained, shifting awkwardly on his feet. Darcy seemed to be desperately trying to keep eye-contact with David, much to his dismay.

“And it’s amazing! Not everybody can pull that sorta style off. Davey can rock it!” An absolute life saver, David’s friend came over, a goofy but somehow smug grin plastered on his face, “But for you, well, let's just say it's probably a good thing you're playing it safe with that... Superdry hoodie.”

__ Crutchie. Crutch...  
_ Darcy’s cousin, my best friend.  
_ __ My only friend, really.

“Screw you, Charlie. You know how soft they are, and Katherine brought it for me-” Crutchie cringed at his real name, but kept his head up, he should be used to it by now, but somehow he wasn't.

“Hey, babe.” Speak of the devil. Katherine appeared just behind Darcy, the same bubbly smile on her face as usual, she pecked his cheek and intertwined their hands. Katherine was short, to say the least, she just about came up to David’s shoulder. She had a stunning head of curly ginger hair and a face of freckles to match, some of her hair was pulled back and tied in a bun at the back, half up, half down, which was decorated with a pink scrunchie to hold it all together. She also had a similar style to David, clothing wise, she wore a pink jumper with a white blouse underneath - collar poking out, and a pair of jeans and brown ankle boots to go with it. Though, unlike David, she switched up what she wore every other day, while David played it safe, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

“Oh, Hi.” Darcy smiled back at her, but something about his smile wasn’t quite right, like it was fake but just not quite. The two of them were a power couple and Darcy knew this, and he definitely wasn’t afraid to flaunt this, and he definitely wasn’t afraid to flaunt Katherine. She had changed him, but in a negative way, Katherine was sweet, a kind girl, so of course she never meant to do this, but her status gave him power, confidence, a little too much confidence and so it went straight to his head. They’d only been together for a little over five months now, and they were going strong, it was well known that there was something going on years before the actual relationship came around. From what any normal person could tell, there was no sign of this relationship ending anytime soon, so people thought.

_ She was pretty.  
And yes, you're allowed to think someone is pretty without actually liking them. _

“How you doing?” She asked, 

He wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her close, “I'm good. How are you?”

“Good.”

__ Remember Katherine?  
__ The second non-recipient of one of my love letters?  
__ That's this Katherine. Darcy’s Katherine.  
__ Seventh grade, my first real boy/girl party.  
__ Everyone knew that Katherine and Darcy,  
_ who at the time was still my best friend,  _ __ only wanted to kiss each other.  
__ It was just a game of spin the bottle,  
__ and I just happened to spin the bottle so that it landed on Katherine,  
I knew something wasn’t quite right so I offered to spin again.  
__ “I can spin it again.”  
__ “You can't cheat the bottle.”  
__ So we kissed, I guess. It didn’t really mean much, it was just because of a game,  
__ but still, it sparked some feelings, and maybe they were still there,  
but I just ignore them and hope they go away, and I was nearly there with that,  
__ in fact, they were practically gone.

“So I was just complimenting David on his… sweater. But I see someone I need to talk to so I’ll see you later,” He gave Katherine a kiss on the cheek, “Bye, Kathy,”

“Bye!” Darcy walked away, leaving Katherine with the two other boys, they were looking at her, with a look of both confusion and disgust, she didn’t quite get it at first, “What…?” Then she realised what it was all about, “Look, he just stopped drinking caffeine for some diet, I think he’s in withdrawal.”

“Are you sure he just doesn't have a chemical imbalance?” David joked, trying to at least get a laugh, but unfortunately he got nothing more than an awkward smile.

“Right…” She huffed, glancing sideways, but managed to crack a genuine smile, “I gotta go, see you,” she waved and made her way in the same direction as her boyfriend.

David turned to face Crutchie, “Really think my jumper is cool?” David finally asked after she left, 

“If you ask, it ruins the whole vibe.” He paused, taking a breath. “Anyway, you think I'm gonna let my cousin talk trash about you?”

_\-- _❀_\--_

Lunch was problematic to say the least, Crutchie’s leg was aching too much so he stayed in the medical room for the from lesson three onwards, it was always awkward to sit in the lunchroom alone, though it wasn’t like David would be able to find a seat in there anyway, so he tried the library, which would have been fine, if he brought a sandwich for lunch, instead he bought carrots and only soft foods were allowed to be eaten in the library, which was fair enough seen as it was a quiet place meant for studying. So, he found himself at the bleachers outside, it was an old hang out spot for him and Jack, part of him hoped Jack was there, “Hey.” and he was. “Um, is this seat taken?”

“Yeah… Well, by you.” David nodded and sat down, Jack was sketching, probably just the landscape but he didn’t get a good enough look to say for certain, he closed the book and slid it into his bag, just so he didn’t seem too anti-social.  There were a few minutes of silent, somehow both awkward and comfortable.

“I… I gotta ask…” Jack spoke up, “Did she tell you she was gonna do it? Because I just figured you guys talk about everything, right? So…?” It made sense, why he would think that, David and Sarah were always close, despite the age and gender difference,

David shook his head, “She didn't tell me about this.” 

“We're still cool, right?” The other boy asked, turning his head to face David, “We can still talk and...you know, kick it?”

“Ugh... Don't say ‘kick it.’” David groaned, but the smile quickly flashed onto his face, “And yes, we are cool.”

“Good.”

“Good.” Jack repeated, bringing his sketchbook out, then David took out his bag of carrots from before, another awkward silence.

“Do you want a carrot?” He offered and held out the bag, there were still a few left,

“Sure, thanks,” So, Jack took one, then pulled out one of his ear buds, “Did you want to…?”

David nodded, shifting closer towards him and putting the ear bud in,

_ I know what you're thinking, but we really were cool.  
_ _ However I felt about Jack… _

“New album?” David asked, maybe trying to start a little conversation and clear the awkward feeling that lingered in the air, Jack nodded,

_ ...I would never do that to Sarah. _

_\-- _❀_\--_

The end of the day came and the sun still shone bright, Les ran up to David, a smile on his face,  "The middle school cafeteria is so enormous! Sally wanted to sit at lunch, but so did Smalls and Boots. I ended up rotating so everyone had time next to me, you know?”

“Yeah, I can totally relate.” David rolled his eyes, opening the car door, and just as this morning - throwing bags in the back, and Les put on his helmet, clicking the buckle at the side,

“Really?”

“Of course.”

After he made sure that the younger boy had his seat belt on, David started to reverse, he checked behind him for a split second then began moving, just a second later he felt a thud, he stopped quickly and looked again in the rear-view mirror, eyes wide, “Oh my fucking god... no, no, no, no-”

“Good thing I'm wearing my helmet!” Les cackled, two people, the ones he just bumped, walked around to his window, one looking more friendly than the other, he recognised both of them, Katherine, once again, and Spot Conlon, Katherine was muttering something to him about not being rude, or not being to harsh,

“It was only an accident,” She said, Spot ignored her,

He tapped on the window on David’s side, David cringed and rolled the window down, “Hi.” He spoke with a thick Brooklyn accent, Katherine glared at him again, a look of warning,

“Hi?” David kept looking forwards, starting to tap his fingers against the steering wheel.

“How you doing?”

“Good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Spot took a breath, trying not to laugh, “You know people usually check behind them before they reverse to avoid killing others, it's a... thing we do.”

“Yeah, I'm just not completely comfortable with using my mirrors yet, so…”

“Yeah, clearly.”

“Think you're gonna be able to make it out of the parking lot?” Katherine piped in, offering some help, maybe trying to cover up Spot’s approach on the matter,

“Yeah. We're fine. Really, seriously. Um- so you should just… go, seriously.”

“Sure, whatever you say, Jacobs. You're in charge.” Spot took over again, the two walked away, chatting as they went,

“Who was that?” Les asked, having stayed silent the whole conversation, he noticed how tough Spot seemed, and the contrary softness of Katherine.

“That was Katherine Pulitzer and Spot Conlon.”

There were a few moments of silence before Les spoke up again, confused, “What are we waiting for?”

“The rest of the cars to leave.”

“Oh my god-”

“Language.”

“I didn’t even- you swore two minutes ago!

"That was different."

"What-?”

_\-- _❀_\--_

The room was silent and dark, just the television screen illuminating just in front of where it sat,  _ Golden Girls _ was playing, the two boys sat, watching it, David cleared his throat, “What do you think Sarah’s doing tonight?”

“Crack.” Les replied casually,

“Les, why would you say that?” David glanced over, half amused, half shocked,

“It's how Scottish people say fun. Like, ‘You're a good crack.’ I looked it up.”

The older boy just ignored that comment, he spoke up after a moment of silence, “It's weird not having her here, huh?”

“It's weird not having Jack here, too.” Les added, “I miss his Pulitzer impression.”

“Careful what you say, I go to school with Pulitzer’s daughter,”

“How many boyfriends could that naive daddy’s girl possibly have had? Fifty-six?” Les quoted the scene that had just played, half mocking the woman on their screen's voice.

“Excuse me?” He half-laughed, a bit of a scoff.

“You know, Davey, if  _ you  _ had a girlfriend... or a boyfriend, maybe you wouldn't have to drive at all 'cause they would take us places.”

“If that's what it takes, I think you're stuck with me.” He tried to smile a little, it wasn’t like he was actively seeking romance, but the idea of a significant other to hold him seemed nice, even if he did develop a crush on someone, he knew he wouldn’t be able to confess, which is where the letters came in, ‘just keep the feelings inside’ he told himself, ‘that way you don’t need to worry about them, really’, he just found out that it was a simple and healthy way of dealing with it.

“I dunno. What about the girl you almost killed the other day?”

“She's dating Darcy.”

“The other guy?”

“He’s dating Racetrack,”

“What sort of name is that? Mhmmm, anyways...?” He paused, “It's not just that... Don't you find it kinda depressing that it's Saturday night, and you're having a Golden Girls marathon with your little Brother?”

“No. I love the Golden Girls, and I love hanging out with you.”

“Okay, I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad, but Davey, I'm eleven and I canceled plans to be here tonight. And well... you're sixteen, and I don't think you had anything else going on, am I right?

“That’s harsh, Les.” David scoffed, throwing a piece of popcorn over at Les, he swatted it away in response, then picked up a few pieces from the bowl and threw them back at David.

“The truth hurts, David.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated! Have a lovely day, my darling!
> 
> also lmao les is a little older because story flow, made more sense and just i can't be bothered to convert ages,,, grades i'm british okay and also dumb and feral. and i love katherine so much i go rogue and make her my own- thank you pinterest.


	3. Pouring Rain and Milkshakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey, hold on. What if you didn't tell him?”
> 
> “What?” He stopped in his tracks, looking back at her with confusion,
> 
> “What if we let people think we were actually together? Just for a little while. And not just Jack. I mean everybody.”

**Word Count: ** **3624**

* * *

“What'd you do last night?” David asked Crutchie, they were in gym, but seen as Crutchie couldn’t really participate, David spent the lessons slowly jogging while Crutchie walked with him, neither of them really putting in any effort,

“I finished another book. It was so good.”

“Another bodice ripper?" David raised an eyebrow and at Crutchie's avoided eye-contact he took it as a yes, "You little perv.”

“I enjoy them for their camp.”

“Yeah, right!” He laughed,  “Don't worry, dude, no judgment.”

From beside him, David heard a cough, he turned to look and saw Katherine jogging beside him, "Hey, can I talk to you?" She asked, making direct eye-contact with David.

“Um, me?” David turned to face her, having to look down a little,

“Yeah.” She nodded, this all made no sense to him at all, they weren't even in the same phys-ed class, and even if she did had a free period now, why on earth would she be looking for him?

Crutchie piped up, “Hey, Kathy, I heard my cousin dumped you for a college student, that true?” 

“I heard you have a tail.” The girl raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, looking at him,

“Yep, really cute. Like a little piggy.” He let out a snort, still sporting a goofy smile,

"I need to talk to… I need to talk to Davey." Katherine said, brushing off Crutchie’s comment, "Alone.” She added when Crutchie didn't seem to move.

“Alright then. If you need me, I'll be in the nurse's office, with a migraine, Googling Jonathon Groff shirtless.” The boy nodded, then turned and started walking over to a building with a plaque labeled 'Nurses Office' next to the door.

“Look, I wanted to say that I really… I appreciate it, but it's never gonna happen.” She held up a light pink envelope that looked like it had a letter inside, the paper was torn and jagged at the opening, most likely from where she'd opened it,

“I'm sorry, what?” David furrowed his eyebrows, and tilted his head in confusion,

Katherine took a breath, “From what I remember that kiss was hot, you know, for being in seventh grade, and I think it's really cool you think I have golde n specks in my eyes. It's just... Darcy and I are in a really weird place right now.” She avoided eye-contact with him, then she looked back and David was swaying for just a split second, “Davey? Are you-?" Then he fell to the ground, "Whoa! Hey, Davey? David Jacobs, wake up. Hello? Hey, can I get some help over here?” She glanced around and knelt at his side, calling out for help, “Hey. Hey… Wake up! Are you okay?”

“What happened?” His eyes slowly opened and he squinted at the sun, starting to sit up before flopping back down again,

“You fainted.”

“Oh... Okay.”

“Here, give me your hand. And the other one, too.” She held out her hands and he took them, “Come on, you got this. Here we go. And you're up.” She managed to pull him off the ground, “Want me to call someone, get you some water?” She offered, already making to walk away,

“No, I'm okay.”

“You sure?” The girl and stayed where she was,

David didn’t reply for a moment, he looked over Katherine's shoulder and saw Jack walking over in their direction, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God!”

“What…?” Katherine went to look behind her, but was stopped by two hands tightly gripping her shoulders and pulling her in close, another pair of lips on her own. She felt herself fall forward, landing on top of someone else, who she only assumed was David. His lips were a little chapped, not quite what she was used to, but it wasn't that bad if she was honest. She wasn't entirely sure whether to pull away or not so she just stayed, mildly confused.

“Hey! Stop that!” One of the sports coaches called over from the bleachers, he pointed at them, “Two more laps for you, Jacobs!

“Sorry and thank you.” He muttered then quickly pushed her off of him then went off to continue his laps,

“Wait... What…?” Katherine sat there, in a complete daze, then turned around to see Jack just a few steps behind her, “Uh, I…” She murmured, lost for words. He looked confused then turned away and started walking in the other direction, “David Jacobs!” She called after him, starting to run after David, though she never caught up with him.

_ \--  _ ❀ _ \-- _

He pieced things together, if both Katherine and Jack got their letters, it could only mean that each of the other letters were sent and delivered too, a voice brought him out of his thoughts, one he recognised to be Racetrack Higgins, “Hey, Davey, you in there?”

“No.” David huffed and stepped out of the cubicle, leaning against the wall, facing Racetrack but avoiding eye-contact, “Hey-”

__ Freshman homecoming,  
A Titanic themed party, though it was nothing more than the decorations that had anything to do with the Titanic,  
I __ found myself sat in a corner, alone, then Racer approached me,  
and I don’t know what it was but something really just drew me to him, “Hey, Davey.” he greeted,  
__ “That ascot looks really cool on you.” I tried to compliment him,  
__ “Oh, yeah. Thanks. It's actually a cravat....I really like your shoes.”  
__ “Oh, cool. Cool.”  
__ “My sister chose it for me.”  
__ “I... It's dope.”  
__ “Do you maybe wanna dance?”  
_ “Oh, my God. I never thought you'd ask!”  
_ __ The dance was nothing special, but I enjoyed it.

“Look, I didn't mean to barge in on you. I saw you run in here and I wanted to make sure you're okay, and, uh… thought you might want that back. It seemed a little personal.” Racetrack held out the letter, it was still in its blue envelope, but, like Katherine's, it has been opened,

“Race, I wrote this years ago.” He said as he took the letter back and stuffed it in his pocket,

“Freshman homecoming, right? I had a lot of fun that night, too. But I feel like I should tell you, though, you know I'm dating Spot, right?”

_ I did not. _

“Yes. Of course, yes. I... I did. I did.”

“But don't tell anyone though. I'm out and I'm not ashamed. You know, my mom knows. My dad kinda knows. It's just…”

“High school?” David finished,

“High school. Yeah.” He nodded,

_ \--  _ ❀ _ \-- _

“Hey, D,” Mayer stood in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables, after a moment he spoke again at David’s lack of reply, he mimicked his voice, “...Hi, Dad.”

“Have you seen a brown box? That one that looks like cardboard but isn’t, it's square, it has my name on it.” David completely ignored whatever his father said to him, stopping at the bottom of the stairs

“Wow. No ‘hi, Dad’ no ‘why are you home early?’ Maybe because your patient delivered in under six hours, you brought a new life into the world, and you're home to-”

“I really need to know. Mom gave it to me. It's very important.”

“I don't know. Maybe it went out with the Goodwill boxes.”

“The Goodwill boxes?” David’s eyes widened, he gasped a little and stood still in fear, “No… no… oh my God-”

“Hey, you got some mail too by the way.” The older man nodded his head towards a letter that sat on the countertop, it had a pinkish-yellow envelope, it was the letter addressed to Romeo, a boy David met at camp many years ago, it was sent back seen as it was addressed to the camp, not wherever Romeo lived.

“This is all your fault! I hate everyone!” He half yelled, a little dramatic, which he realised just as he slammed his bedroom door shut, though he was far too caught up in his dilemma to think about anything else.

“What's his problem?” Mayer asked Les, who was sitting on the sofa, reading through  _ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets _ , no doubt that it was actually David’s copy.

“Moon day?” The boy suggested, shrugging, moon day was a sort of code name for periods from when Sarah was a little younger, it helped her avoid the awkwardness she felt when she had to explain to her brothers and father why she wanted a heat pad in the summer heat wave, from then on it stuck.

“Moon day? David has a penis, not a vagina.” He corrected, rinsing a half dozen raw carrots, the few chunks of dirt washing away with the stream of water.

“Says you, doctor man! He’s a hormonal teenage boy!”

He slapped his hands onto the counter and tilted his head in confusion, “I- what?”

_ \--  _ ❀ _ \-- _

__ “The letters are out. They're out. There's nothing you can do about it.” I told myself, trying to drill some sense into my brain, not that it would help in all honesty. The letters were out and I can’t do anything about it, that was a fact.  
__ “Silver lining, Romeo’s letter was addressed to camp, so at least he'll never find out how hard you were crushing after Chubby Bunny. You really oughta relax.” A voice told me, my brain was telling me that it was Jack, but a figment of my imagination, it was like I could see him sat in the corner, on my chair, the same cocky smile as usual and paint smudged on his skin, sometimes clothing, and a few chunks of hair sticking up to reveal the few and faint freckles that decorated his cheeks in the summertime. “I know you love me.”  
__ “Loved, past tense. You're Sarah’s.” I corrected myself, that was one feeling I needed to get rid of, falling in love with someone who my sister still loved was only going to hurt, it was a bad idea and I knew that-  
__ “‘Dear Jack, I lie awake at night and imagine running my fingers through your hair. Feeling your strong arms aro-’” He, or I suppose, I, started reciting that letter I wrote all those years ago, oh my gosh.  
_ “Shut up! You're not real.” I flinched a little and fell back onto my bed, trying so hard to clear my head, to get rid of image, that voice.  
_ __ “I'm more real to you than he is.”

Les knocked on the door, not waiting for a response, he opened it to see the scene of David with his head in his hands, talking to himself, almost like a prep talk, but not quite. He raised an eyebrow and brought David out of his thoughts, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing?” He looked up, face a little red,

“Well... Jack is here, by the way.”

His eyes widened, and he shot up, grabbing his backpack, quickly checking that he had some change and his house keys, “You never saw me!” David told the younger boy, already climbing out his open window, he missed a step and began rolling down the roof of the house’s porch, letting out muffled ‘Ow’s as he went. He eventually landed on the floor, just on the grass next to the front door, he looked up to check if Jack was there, he wasn’t so David assumed that he must have been invited inside. He rushed into the garage and picked out his bike, he hadn’t ridden it in about a year and the frame was slightly rusty and the seat looked rather uncomfortable but it would do for a ten or so minute journey, so he pulled it out to the road and closed the garage door, then began cycling over to an old diner he used to visit with his mother.

A few raindrops fell down and hit his head, not that he took any notice of them or the dark clouds looming ahead, it grew heavier by the second and the streetlamps began to turn on, creating that same blurred light mess that they did on the road on the night Sarah left. 

_ \--  _ ❀ _ \-- _

David found himself sat at the counter of the diner, a cup of tea in front of him, and he had his phone out and he was scrolling through Instagram, making his way into the void of cooking and DIY videos, there was a soft cough next to him, he didn’t think anything of it - just another noise to the soundscape of rain against the windows, clinking glasses and chatter around him, the person coughed again, a little louder and he felt a pair of eyes watching him so he looked up, a head of red hair catching his eye, Katherine Pulitzer, once again, “Hey, Davey.” She smiled at him, her hoodie had a few dark patches from the rain, she stayed with her body facing him,

“Oh… hello, anything for your friend?” The waitress, an old woman, came over, gently placing her hand on David’s shoulder, who was drinking from his cup.

“She's not with me.” He replied as soon as the cup was away from his mouth, he swiped Instagram away and shoved his phone in his pocket,

“I'd like a chocolate shake, thanks.” She smiled at the waitress sweetly, who, as soon as she had the order written, walked away.

“So what are you doing here?” David asked, throughout the many, many times he’s been to this diner, not once had he seen Katherine anywhere near it,

“I'm just here to take down one of those chocolate shakes.”

“Cool.”

“Actually,” Katherine began, “I stopped at your house, your brother said you'd probably be here. Look, I just wanna be super clear, okay?”

“Okay?”

“I'm flattered, I am, but… Darcy and I, like, just broke up so…” 

“Are you trying to reject me?”

“Yeah, it didn't really seem like it took the first time.”

“Katherine Pulitzer, I'm not trying to date you.” He smiled a little, somewhat amused but somewhat awkward too,

“Well, your mouth is saying something, but your mouth _said_ something different.” She glanced to the side, as if she was trying to avoid eye contact,

“What?”

The woman returned with the milkshake that Katherine had previously ordered, she placed it in front of Katherine, “Thank you,” She said, straightening her back to get a look at her name tag, “Uh... Medda.”

“Okay, um... So here's the thing, I don't actually like you. I just had to make it look like I liked you so someone else wouldn't think I liked them.”

“Oh, okay. Okay, who? She responded, almost as if she was challenging him, pressuring him to get an answer from him,

“What?”

“Who? You gotta tell me who this mystery stud is, otherwise I'm gonna go on believing you have a secret tattoo with my face on your chest or something.”

“No.”

“Should I tell the school that you wrote me a love letter?”

“Okay, okay. Fine. Fine.” He cringed a little, deciding that it was probably best if he just ripped it off like a plaster. “Um… It's Jack Kelly.”

“Wait, hold on, Kelly? Doesn't that guy date your sister? And does that make you gay or…?” She trailed off,

“Bi." He corrected, "And well, he dated my sister, in the past tense. He also got a letter, so you can see how awkward and complicated that's gonna get if he thinks I like him.” David rambled on, starting to fiddle with the sleeve of his jumper again, trying to force a smile onto his face,

“Hold on. Stop… I'm not the only person that got a letter? Wow, you really think you're special, then you find out he wrote two people.”

“I wrote five, so don't go feeling too special.”

“You wrote five love letters?” She laughed, almost a scoff in surprise, she raised her eyebrows and rested an arm on the counter beside her,

“Yeah.”

“Damn, Jacobs, you're a player… Who else did you write letters to?”

“If I tell you will you leave me alone?”

“Maybe."

“Okay, Racetrack Higgins.”

“He's… He's dating Spot Conlon.”

“You don't know that.”

“Everyone knows, plus I caught them making out on my couch one time at a party so…” She took a breath, “Who else?”

“Um… Someone from camp and someone I went to Model UN with in fifth grade. So, are we good here?

“Uh… Yeah. No, yeah, we're good.”

“Okay, great.” David went to stand up, gulping down the rest of his tea, and picking up his backpack from the ground, he gave a final look to Katherine then took a single step towards the door before he was stopped.

“Wait, wait, wait. It's just… That bike out front, is that your ride?” She gestured her head over to the bike rack that sat out in the pouring rain,

“Yeah?”

She nodded a little, and a small but smug smile crept onto her face.

_ \--  _ ❀ _ \-- _

David unclicked his seat belt and sat there for a moment, a little reluctant to go out into the rain, “Thanks for driving me.”

“Yeah, sure.” Katherine shrugged it off, hands still gently resting on the steering wheel,

“Sorry for the whole jumping you thing. Coulda been worse, right?” It was a few days late but there it was, a proper apology,

“What are you gonna say to Kelly?”

“I guess it’ll have to be the truth.”

“Yeah, but, you know…What is the truth?” She took a breath, “Do you like him, do you not like him?”

“It's not your problem, Katherine.” He started to get out, the door was half open, the side of his leg and his arm slowly getting drenched,

“Hey, hold on. What if you didn't tell him?”

“What?” He stopped in his tracks, looking back at her with confusion,

“What if we let people think we were actually together? Just for a little while. And not just Jack. I mean everybody.” She shrugged, playing with her nails a little,

“Why would you want that?”

“For starters, when Darcy heard you kissed me, he went nuts, and if he thinks you and I are a thing, he'll want to get back together.”

“Oh, so you want to use me as your pawn?”

“Ah, well, technically, you used me as your pawn first when you jumped me.” She paused again, shaking her head, “You don't have to give me an answer now, just think about it, okay?”

“Yep. Don't hold your breath.” He jumped out and closed the car door with a fake smile on his face, he ran over to his porch, searching around for his keys in his bag.

Katherine smiled a little at David, then heard some tapping on the window next to her, she turned to see it was none other Jack Kelly, he gestured and she rolled down the window, he rested his arms on the car, clearly not caring too much about the rain pouring down onto him, “What?”

“Pulitzer, right?” He greeted,“Taking Davey home?”

“Looks like it.” She shrugged her shoulders again, leaning into her chair,

“Hey, how long you two been hanging out?”

“Uh… Not long.”

_ \--  _ ❀ _ \-- _

__ “Will you call me?”  
__ Stop it, David.  
__ So, Jack’s voice was back in my brain, I was just trying to clear my head but he’s back,   
__ “There's so much I want to talk about, music I wanna share, tattoos I wanna get with you.”  
__ “Stop. Jack, this cannot happen.” At this point I’m talking to myself, I knew that but oh my gosh, I can’t just ignore his voice. My brain won’t let me.  
__ “We'd be so great together.”  
__ “Oh, my Gosh. Shut it.” It was like he was laying beside me, on the only clear patch on my bedroom floor, I squeezed my eyes shut, like if I couldn’t see him, then he wasn’t there. Not like he was actually there anyway. I opened my eyes and he wasn’t there, I sighed in relief and looked around me, leaning on my elbows,  
_ “It's a cool trick, right? You wanna see me do it again?” Jack had gone and instead it was Katherine, laying next to me on the other side, her voice had the same sort of inhumane tone to it.  
_ __ “Oh my gosh...”

_ \--  _ ❀ _ \-- _

David thought for a while overnight, ‘a while’ meaning a few hours. Then, the next day he found himself walking down the corridor and through the cafeteria, making a beeline for Katherine’s table, where she sat, along with Spot, Racetrack, and Albert.

He took a breath and called her from about a table away, he made sure that they would be in direct view of Darcy, “Hey, Pulitzer!” Once he had her attention, he gestured his head for her to come over to where he was standing. She said something to her friends then walked over,

“Yes?”

“Let's do this.”

She grinned, then went up onto her toes, holding on to his shoulders, and kissed him, it was more gentle than how he had kissed her the first time on the running track. He let his eyes close and kissed back hesitantly for just a moment, slightly terrified and embarrassed seen as everyone in the cafeteria was probably watching, in fact, he could see Darcy out of the corner of his eye and to say he looked angry would be an understatement.

“I'm going to the library.” David half-whispered when they finally broke away, his arms still rigid, holding onto his backpack straps. He was a little star struck, dazed even. “Have a nice day.”

Katherine smiled and patted his chest gently, “Yeah.”  He looked over at the table where Katherine was sat, then walked away out of the room, trying to keep his head up, acting like that wasn’t just his second proper kiss, or at least he tried to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated! Have a lovely day, my darling!


	4. Stolen Scrunchies and Cupcakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I think it's funny, you say you're scared of commitment and relationships, but you don't seem to be afraid to be with me.”
> 
> “Well, there's there's no reason to be.”
> 
> “Yeah? Why's that?” She cocked an eyebrow,
> 
> “'Cause we're just pretending.”

**Word Count: 4670 i don't know why this is so long-**

* * *

The two were sitting at a bench, right next to the running track, they’d both found some time after school to discuss a few things. Katherine had a sheet of paper and a pen out, at the top she wrote ‘Contract’ and underlined it, then the date next to it, ‘September 15th.’ “So, first things first, we need to have a contract so we're on the same page about the rules.” 

“You got rules? Come on, you really know how to zap the fun out of a situation.” David commented, raising an eye-brow and reaching for his bottle of water than sat on the table.

“It's important to know where you stand on certain issues.” She explained, already drawing the first bullet point and writing it out, ‘No kissing.’ the ‘no’ being underlined four times.

“Okay," He nodded, "Like what?”

“For example, I don't think I should kiss you or you should kiss me anymore.”

“You crazy? Who's gonna believe we're in a relationship if I'm not allowed to kiss you?”

“You think you’re the Romeo Montague of this kind of stuff but you’ve never had a significant other.”

“You have the references of an 80-year-old woman.” David laughed a bit, 

“It's Shakespeare! Everyone knows Romeo and Juliet!"

“Why does that matter anyway?”

"It matters because, and I’m telling you now, you don’t want all your firsts to be fake, and you’ll thank me later.” She took a breath, “If you’re making out with someone, you’ll want to do it for real. And I know you kissed me first and I then kissed you with permission pretty much, and I'm sorry about that. But this is non-negotiable.”

“Fine. We need to figure something out because people are gonna get suspicious if I'm not allowed to touch you.”

“Okay, yeah, you have a point. How about this? You can put your hand in my back pocket.”

“Hand in your back pocket? What on earth is that?” 

“Sixteen Candles?” She said, speaking again when he just shrugged his shoulders, “It's the opening image. it's a couples thing.”

“Yeah, maybe in the '70s.”

“Sixteen Candles was the '80s.” She corrected, “John Hughes?" He shrugged and shook his head, "Nothing?”

“Mm.” He shook his head,

“Okay… Two more rules then. You have to watch Sixteen Candles with me because it's a classic, and we can never tell anyone this relationship is fake, because it would be too humiliating for both of us.” She wrote the two of them down,

“Duh, first rule of Fight Club.”

“What?” She finished dotting the i's and crossing the t's then looked at David, confused,

“Are you serious? You've never seen Fight Club?”  She shook her head,  “Oh, my Gosh! Okay, write it down. Double feature. After we watch the Candles movie, we are watching Fight Club.”

“Fight Club… Sixteen Candles… No snitching.” She wrote ‘Fight Club’ next to ‘Sixteen candles’ with a slash in between and looked back at David, “Anything else?”

“I could… I just remember from last year, and I know you did with Darcy for a while… because I saw you open them in class sometimes… I- um… we could write each other notes… every day?” He stumbled a little over his words, and his cheeks turned the lightest shade of pink, "I just remember you and him having an argument, him bullshitting about you not being as committed to it all but- I don't know, I remember the argument vaguely-"

“You'd be down for that?”

“Sure.”

“Darcy was always struggling to think of things to write on them. So he just gave up… just a uh- word of warning.”

“So if we start sending them, he’ll be pissed?”

“Probably?” She raised her eyebrows, shrugged and laughed a little, “...How romantic. Also, you have to meet me after my school newspaper meetings and come with me to parties.”

“Yeah okay.”

“Oh, come on, Davey! I’m just trying to help you live your teenage years properly!”

“You have to pick up my brother and I and drive us to school.” He sighed and ignored what she said, even if she did have a point, just agreeing to make both their lives easier.

“Okay.” She wrote the next few down,

“But I’m coming on the ski trip.”

_ What the fuck, David?  
_ _ The Pulitzer High ski trip was infamous for being the location where more students lost their virginity than Senior Week and Prom combined.  
_ __ I have never been. Obviously.

“Uh…That’s- that's three months away. Do you think we're still gonna be doing this?” She raised an eyebrow, her face riddled with confusion,

“Let's call it a contingency. No one in their right mind is gonna let their girlfriend go without them, you know that. I’m just trying to make this as believable as possible. So if we are still doing this by the time it comes around, I’ll go with you.”

“I'm certain that by the time the ski trip comes around, you and I will be ancient history, and that is the only reason I’m agreeing with you. Though, it’s not like anything is actually stopping you from going anyway,”

“Mhm, okay. Fine.”

_\-- _❀_\--_

“Come on, Les. We're gonna be late.” David called from the front door, Les came jogging down the stairs, pulling on a hoodie then picking up a backpack that sat on the sofa,

“I hate taking the bus. Can you please man up and start driving?”

“Actually…” He trailed off, closing and locking the door behind them, Katherine’s car pulled up just across the road, she rolled down her window and called out,

“Hey! You two ready?” She rolled down the window and called out from her car,

“Oh, hell yes!” Les grinned ear to ear, already running over to get in the back, he had a small bottle in his hand, it was sealed but he looked as if he was just about to open it.

“Hey, little Davey, what is that?”

“A Korean yogurt smoothie… and my name, thanks for asking, is Leslie Joshua Jacobs. Les to my friends.” The boy took a breath, “You can call me Leslie.”

“Yes, sir.” She chuckled, then looked over to David, mouthing “He’s feisty.”

David laughed then looked back, already looking for his seat belt, “Les, put on your seat belt.”

“So how exactly do you know my brother again?” Les asked, clicking it in,

“I guess I'm his girlfriend.” She smiled a little at that, turning to David and shrugging, then she turned back to Les to give a smile, she saw the bottle in his hand, “Can I have some of that?”

“Sure.” He shrugged then passed it through the gap between the two front seats,

She opened it up and took a sip, “Oh, wow… That is really good- Hey, what do I have to do to get you to bring me one of these tomorrow?”

“You're driving us again?” He seemed almost shocked at that.

“Yeah, of course.” Katherine looked at him in the rear view mirror and nodded,

He grinned from ear to ear, “Okay, you can call me Les!”

She leaned over to whisper in David’s ear, a smile on her face still, “Progress!”

_\-- _❀_\--_

_ I was used to being invisible, but now?  
_ _ People were looking at me, talking about me. _

Lunch rolled around and Katherine and David were walking through the cafeteria, in plain sight, taking a slow walk towards Katherine’s usual lunch table, his hand was sitting nicely in the back pocket of her jeans, just like she said when they first decided the rules, he spun her around quickly so she was facing him, just when he saw both Jack and Darcy in sight, “What are you doing?” She muttered, it was just about clear enough,

“This is for you. Good job.” He passed her a note, a small piece of paper, folded a few times, decorated with a small heart drawn on it. She let out a small gasp and pulled a note of her own from her pocket, they swapped notes, David just pushed it into his pocket while Katherine kept her's in hand.

She smiled, still talking quietly, “I'll see you in a bit, okay?” He nodded, kissing her knuckles gently then walking away, in all honest y, he had no clue where that sudden burst of confidence had come from, it was foreign - bizarre even.

_ It's weird and somewhat off-putting to congratulate someone on doing nothing more than accepting a note and having an ass pocket to stick your hand in  
_ _ but I guess that's where my life has taken me. _

David had just barely exited the cafeteria, a voice called him from a detention room, he walked over and peered in, the room was seemingly empty, “The Pulitzer thing is insane!” Crutchie popped out of nowhere, David jumped back a little, “Who knew you had a secret boner for the queen of the cafeteria crowd?”

“I know, I'm…” He paused to find the words, “Just as shocked as you are.”

“Did Sarah freak?” Crutchie asked, tugging David to sit down on one of the desks opposite him,

“Actually, you know, I've- um…” He wrinkled his nose, “I’ve been avoiding her calls so she doesn't know yet.”

_\-- _❀_\--_

“Hi, Sarah. How's college?” David asked to absolutely no one, he found himself, later that evening, in his room, rehearsing how he was going to explain to Sarah his whole situation, “So listen, did I mention I have a fake girlfriend? No? Yeah, it's Katherine Pulitzer” He took a breath and shook his head, realising he was completely bonkers, yet he continued, “How did it start? See, that's a funny story, because it definitely was not because I was trying to convince your ex-boyfriend that I wasn't in love with him, that's for sure.” His head fell to his hands, “Oh, shit…”

Finally his laptop began ringing, it was Sarah. David took a breath and clicked on the ‘accept call’ button and plastered a smile on his face, “Hi!”

“Hi, finally!” Sarah smiled brightly back at him, he could see that she was sat in her dorm on her bed, it looked late, it was dark outside her window, a soft glow coming from a streetlamp, it must have been about nine pm for her, “I feel like we haven't talked in forever, so tell me everything.”

“Well… I'm just making cupcakes tonight for Les’ bake sale.”

“Cupcakes?” She furrowed her eyebrows, “No. It's so much easier to do brownies.”

“Well, I bought all the ingredients for cupcakes, and you're not really here, so…”

“Okay, fine, do cupcakes. I'm sure they'll be great. So have you seen Jack at all lately?”

David filled with panic, he decided to play dumb, “What? Who’s Jack?”

_ Not that dumb you fucking idiot. _

“Our neighbor?" She said, a face of confusion, but who could blame her? "Is everything okay with you?”

“No, you know... No, you know, sorry. I am just so excited to get to these cupcakes. I think I'm gonna go and do that, but it was so good to see you!”

“Wait, Davey!”

“Bye!” He hung up and sighed in relief, then quickly realised that was probably a stupid move. He decided to forget about it for the moment and make his way downstairs to make a start on the cupcakes for Les’ bake sale.

\---

Probably about twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang, so David walked over to answer it, it was Katherine, “Hey.” She smiled, “Who are you supposed to be? The Pillsbury Doughboy?” She looked at the flour covering patches around his face and his hair, where it stood out quite clearly.

“No. I'm making cupcakes for Les’ bake sale.”

She nodded, “Can I come in?”

“Sure.” He stepped to the side then made his way back to the mixing bowl that sat on the counter.

She followed him over, closing the door behind her, “You know it's easier if you make something you can cut into squares like brownies? My mom used to do it for me and still does for my little brothers and sisters.”

“Katherine Pulitzer, what are you doing here?” David huffed and looked at her,

“Did you not read my note? I'm taking you to Albert’s party.”

“Oh, I'm not going to that.” He looked at her with disbelief.

“Yes you are.  One, Darcy’s is gonna be there, and two, parties are in the contract.”

“Sorry, Katherine, I can't.”

“A deal's a deal.”

“You can't what?” Mayer wandered in from the dining room, he had a can of beer in his hand a grin plastered on his face, “Is that Katherine Pulitzer? Little Katherine! You've barely grown!”

She chuckled, it was true, she stopped growing early and so put her at 5'3, in comparison to the Jacobs family, who were quite tall, she was short. “Good to see you again, Dr. Jacobs.” She smiled back brightly,

“You can call me Mayer.”

She nodded, the gestured her head to David, “I'm here to pick up David, take him to a friend's party. The parents will be home, and I will have him home early. Is it alright if we go?”

“Yeah, sure!”

“No!” David interrupted, “I can't go. I have to finish these cupcakes.”

“I think Les and I can handle some cupcakes. Why don't you go have fun with your friend Katherine? Get dressed, get changed, you look like a crazy old man.”

“Dad, don't, please-”

The man pointed at David, “No drinking. No drugs. No hands.”

David huffed and gave a thumbs up, then he took his apron off and threw it at Mayer before dragging himself upstairs to clean up and get changed,

_\-- _❀_\--_

They had not long arrived, they both stood on the porch of the house, “I don't know, Katherine. I…”

“No, we're going. It's in the contract.” She pulled her hair back into a low ponytail with a pink flowery scrunchie, “And maybe lay off calling me by my full name, not even my friends do that,”

He sighed, giving up, then nodded and glanced over at her, “What are you doing? Give me this.” He held his hand out for the scrunchie,

“No.” She replied, so he reached behind her to pull it out of her hair seen as it didn’t look like it was too tightly wrapped around her hair, “What? No- Give that back.” She reached up to try and grab it from his hand but he held it above his head and the height difference proved problematic,

“If I have to go to this party then at you have to at least let your hair down for a bit. I'm keeping it. Besides, I like your hair down.” He slid it into his pocket, “You look pretty. I'll prove it to you.” He pulled out his phone and took a picture of her, then showed the picture to her, “See?”

Katherine huffed, tucking a few stray pieces of hair behind her ears, “Fine. But you can't lose it. My sister gave it to me.”

He nodded along, tapping on his phone at the same time, “Deal. Give me your phone.”

“Why?”

“Don't you trust me?” Katherine nodded hesitantly and passed him her phone, he took a picture of himself, from the eyes up, just showing his slightly disheveled hair and crossed eyes, he never really liked to take photos of himself, or have photos of him taken but for the while, he was okay with him - anything to ensure that Jack wouldn't think that he liked him, to ensure it was clear that him and Katherine were dating, “Alright, you need to make this your new background.”

“What's your new background?” She raised her eyebrows, glancing at her new background quickly before sliding her phone in her back pocket,

“Come on. I already got it.” David held out his phone to show her then put it away again,

“Alright then… let’s go,” She nodded then grabbed him by the hand, starting to lead them towards the door,

He stumbled a little, having second thoughts once again, “Wait- maybe I should just… wait outside for you or something,”

She looked at him with soft eyes and squeezed his hand gently, “David. You’ll be okay, I promise.” 

They were greeted almost immediately by a head of ginger hair, also known as Albert, “Kath!” He was by the pool table, playing with another boy she’d never seen before.

“I’d never miss. I told you I’d come.” She walked over to him, keeping a hold of David, to reassure him more than anything else,

“Welcome to my party.” Albert happily smiled at David, he went in for a fist bump, it took David a moment but he soon realised and awkwardly bumped their fists.

“It's gorgeous.” Katherine commented, “Is this your new pad?”

“It's my parents' pad, but I'll take the credit.” He laughed, taking his aim at the pool table

“I'm gonna get you a drink. You want anything?” She turned back to David, he nodded shyly, “Mkay, I’ll be back,”

A voice beckoned him over, it was none other than Darcy, “Hey, Davey, come sit with us.”

Albert nudged him, poking him with his pool stick, “Sit with them, go on,” David nodded and walked over, giving a fake smile to Darcy as he sat on the sofa,

“So… What's up with you and Pulitzer?” A boy he didn’t recgonise asked, he was sat right next to Darcy, he looked older, only by a few years, David only guessed that this was his new college boyfriend, that he had heard so much about from Crutchie.

“Oh, no, Bill! Don't push him. He’s shy!” Darcy almost laughed, but a smirk tugged at his mouth.

David took a breath, trying to keep himself calm, “What do you want to know?”

“Everything. When? How? How far? H on B? H on C? H up and down on P? T on C?” Bill continued, he must have heard gossip from Darcy - he seemed the nosy type.

“Sorry, what are we talking about again?” He must have zoned out, either that or he had no clue what any of that meant, though it could easily be both, there was a lot of slang in Bill's sentence, and not a single bit of it did David understand - though, if he had to guess, he'd guess that it was something to do with sex, just the thought bought pink onto his cheeks, but he could easily blame that on warmth.

“You know, forget it. Clearly they haven't done anything.” Darcy half-whispered to Bill, but he made sure it was loud enough for David to hear,

“How would you know?”

“Because I know Katherine…” He raised his eyebrows, “And I know David.”

“I'm gonna get a refill. Um... can I get you anything? Like a juice box or chocolate milk.”

“Kath’s gone to get me a drink, but thank you so much for offering.” David smiled again, dropping it immediately as soon as Darcy was out of sight,

“What's up, babe?” Katherine climbed over the sofa, careful not to spill the drinks she was holding, she passed one to David, 

“Hi.” He took the plastic cup and took a sip, squinting his eyes at the taste of whatever was in the cup, “Why is beer so vinegary?”

“Oh… It's not. Kombucha is, though.” She swapped the cups around, realising she had given him the wrong one, he gave her a slightly confused look, “I'm driving, remember?”

“You drink kombucha?”

“Yeah, it's good for your digestion.” She set her cup down on the coffee table, pulling out her phone once again, “Here. Take a selfie.” She held it out, h e wrinkled his nose but leaned into frame, they took about three pictures, one just smiling, one with funny faces and another with David kissing her cheek. He just thought it would be cute and might help to sell the whole relationship thing.

\---

Later that evening, David was stood with Racetrack in a quieter corner, away from the noise and the lights, “I didn't think that you, of all people, would come to a party like this.” Racetrack laughed,

“Well," David shrugged, "Here I am, Katherine kind of convinced me”

“Oh yeah! Pulitzer, huh? I saw you at lunch.” He smirked,

David’s cheeks turned pink, “Everyone did, honestly.”

“Guess those letters worked.”

“Well, yeah, but you gotta keep it a secret.”

“Your filthy secret's safe with me.”

\---

Katherine had taken a quick trip to the bathroom, she was just washing her hands when the door creaked open,  “Whoa. Hey, occupied.” She peered out the door, he pushed her back a little as he walked in,

“David Jacobs, really?” He leant against the wall and raised his eyebrows, “Why’d you bring him to this party anyway? He’s not even something to show off. Besides do you remember Junior Prom? He freaked out. Big time.”

Her eye-line lowered to the ground, she began fiddling with the necklace that hung around her neck, “Why do you care?”  Darcy said nothing, avoiding the question, but held up his wrist, showing off the very same pink scrunchie that David took from Katherine earlier.  “Darcy? Is that my...?”

“I found it on the couch.”

“You know how much it means to me, give it back.” She held out her hand, h e smiled, but rolled his sleeve down, over the scrunchie.  “Come on, give it back.”

“No, but I'm going to keep it for a while, if that’s alright. Don't worry, I won't lose it.” He smiled playfully then walked away, closing the door behind him. Katherine was left on her own, not sure whether to be pissed off or just plain upset.

\---

“Don’t drink it.” David warned, nodding his head to the cup that Racetrack was holding, it was a combination of several different drinks from the bar that Racetrack himself put together.

“Not gonna lie to you, it’s smells nasty.” He shrugged, “Bottoms up.” Then started chugging it,

Katherine walked over to next to David, she seemed uneasy, almost uncomfortable, but she tapped on his shoulder and when he turned around she asked, “Hey. Do you want to get out of here, go grab some food?”

He glanced at Racetrack and waiting for an answer, “Oh no, go ahead. Go, go.”

“Okay.” David nodded then intertwined his hand with hers, “See you later.”

“Bye!” Katherine smiled at Racetrack and gave a small wave before walking away away.

_\-- _❀_\--_

Katherine drove them to the diner, the same one as before, they found a table to sit at quite easily seen as it wasn’t very busy, they ordered a drink each and a bowl of chips between them, they spoke for a bit, just small talk, then they spoke about the party, there was a quiet moment of silence, before Katherine said something again, “You did so good tonight, Darcy was pissed! …I’m also really sorry for just forcing you into a setting you’re not comfy with…”

“It’s okay,” David shrugged, “It wasn’t convenient, yeah, but now I know for sure to stay away from massive parties… Now all I’m worrying about is that Darcy doesn't put glass in my smoothie on Monday.”

“I love how you're not afraid of him.”

“No, no.” He shook his head, “I'm terrified of him.”

“But you don't let him steamroll over you. Like that day he was being a bitch about your sweater-thing!”

“You’re going to have to be more specific-”

She cut him off, “I mean, I couldn't say anything because we were together and everything but that sweater wasn't just cool, I thought it was kinda cute… Darcy’s handsome, but you have way better style.”

He grew a little flustered, seen as he never usually got complimented like that, especially not from a girl, “Thank you.”

A waitress walked over, notepad and pen in hand, “You need anything else?” 

“Uh, no. I think we're good.” Katherine replied with a sweet smile,

“Okay.” Then she left again, taking the empty bowl that sat between them with her,

“He makes me so angry sometimes.” Katherine said, it was almost like she was thinking out loud,

“We're still talking about her?” David raised his eyebrows,

“Tonight, he barely talks to me, we leave, and I have a thousand texts from him.” She was scrolling through her phone, which had a seemingly endless amount of notifications,

“Okay, well, have you been responding?”

“No, I'm… I'll just call him when I get home.”

“You guys still talk on the phone then?”

“I mean, not as much as we used to, but yeah, sometimes.” She shrugged, then glanced at David who seemed to be giving her some sort of look, “What?”

“Hmm?”

“You do this thing, where you have this whole judgy face scenario going on.”

“I guess I just think it's really weird you still talk to your ex-boyfriend on the phone. It's not healthy.” He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest,

“Sorry, you're the expert? You've never even had a girlfriend… or a boyfriend!”

“You've only had one boyfriend, and you're obsessed with him. That doesn't necessarily make you the Bachelorette.”

“One, I am not obsessed with him!” She retorted defensively,

“Okay. So then, prove it. Don't call him tonight.”

She furrowed her eyebrows, “For some who's quiet all the time, you have a lot of opinions.”

“That's just because no one's been honest with you before.”

“Okay, fine. Be honest with me, then. Why haven't you ever had a partner?”

“I don't know. I guess no one's ever liked me like that.”

“Lies. I know that’s not true because I know for a fact that Skittery guy asked you to Spring Formal last year and you said no.”

“Are you keeping tabs on me?”

“Come on, Jacobs, talk to me.” She sighed, “What happened to no secrets? Fight Club. Remember? You’re the one who added that rule!”

He huffed then took a breath, “Okay. Um... So love and dating? I love to read about it, and it's fun to write about and to think about in my head, but… when it's real…”

She leaned forward, resting her arms on the table, “What? it's scary?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged his shoulders, avoiding eye contact,

“Why? Why is that scary?”

“'Cause the more people that you let into your life, the more that can just walk right out.” David explained plainly,

“Just like... Like your mum, right? Um… did you know that… my sister passed away?”

“Yeah. That was a while ago, right?”

“Two summers ago. It was some freak accident.” Her eyes watered a bit but she dried them quickly with her sleeve,

He panicked, thinking that she was close to crying, “I'm so sorry.”

“No, it's fine. It's… I don't usually talk about it.” She took a breath and kept it together, “I just felt like maybe you'd understand 'cause of your mum. Not that it’s the same thing, losing a mother is far different to losing a sister!”

“No, it's totally fine.” He reassured, “I completely understand. Yeah, it's... It's hard, huh?”

“It's whatever.”

“We don't have to talk about it, but it's not whatever.”

She shook her head and changed the topic quickly, “I think it's funny, you say you're scared of commitment and relationships, but you don't seem to be afraid to be with me.”

“Well, there's there's no reason to be.”

“Yeah? Why's that?” She cocked an eyebrow,

“'Cause we're just pretending.” He shrugged.

“Right, of course, David Jacobs, ladies and gentlemen, you can count on him to be honest, always.” She started to stand up and put her jacket on,

He looked at her, both confused and scared he'd hurt or offended her, “Wait, Kath? Are we cool?” 

“Yeah, we're fine, Jacobs.” Katherine took a breath, feeling around for her car keys, then she took out her purse and pulled out a ten dollar bill to pay, “Thank you for coming to the party tonight, even if it was hell for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hello yes this is a day early because i'm super busy all day tomorrow so uhuhu yeah  
it also feels like this chapter was a little dialogue heavy so uhh i'm sorry it was a rush to edit
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated! Have a lovely day, my darling!


	5. Popcorn and Washcoths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You don't mean that. You can be mad at someone and still miss them.”
> 
> “…I bet you really miss your mum, huh?”
> 
> “Yeah, every day. But you know, it's… It's been so long now

**Word Count: 3058**

* * *

_ Fake dating Katherine was getting easier and easier.  
_ _ I always ate with her in the cafeteria and was even becoming friends with some of her friends. _

Spot came over and sat next to David, who was beside Katherine, one lunch, Spot put his tray on the table then glared at Racetrack, “Don't touch my fries.” He turned towards David, he moved up to sit on the table so he didn’t have to crane his neck upwards. “Listen, Davey, I was thinking about your name, and I think that Mouth would suit you better.”

_ They were nothing like my old friends, not that I had many to begin with, _

“Are you- are you on something?” David asked, awkwardly shuffling away from Spot, almost accidentally crushing Katherine,

“I'm on to a new nickname for you-” He nodded enthusiastically with a smile, “It's Mouth! And it's funny because he’s so quiet!” Spot grabbed David and knuckled the top of his head,

_ But it was fun to be part of a group.  
_ _ Of course, there were still moments I wanted to disappear. _

David left the room not long after Spot’s epiphany for a nickname for him, he went and found Jack, he was, of course, in the art room painting at an easel, the door was wide open so he walked in and over to Jack, “Hey. Can we talk now?” He asked, “…Are you painting Santa Fe again?” He added at the sight of Jack’s easel.

“I can't believe you're dating Pulitzer.” Jack shook his head and pushed his hair out of his face, consequently rubbing some paint onto his face,

David seemed almost upset by Jack’s comment, “Why? Is it so unbelievable that someone could like me?” 

“No, it's unbelievable that…” Jack paused to restart his sentence, “You're like... the sweet, innocent guy and she's a complete brat. I don't get it.”

“You know you make me sound really boring, right, Jack? I'm not that innocent. Also, you have no idea what you're talking about! You barely know Katherine."

“Okay.” Jack shrugged, more focused on his painting than David, he made a face at Jack, not that he saw, Jack spoke up at the silence, “Well, great. If that was the reason you came over to talk to me…”

“No, it's… I… Wait…” He trailed off,

“Look…” Jack dropped his paintbrush into the murky pot of water that sat on a small table beside his easel, “Did you mean what you wrote in the letter?”

David shrugged, “I don't know. It was a long time ago.”

“Well, it’s not for me, alright?” He ran a hand through his hair, “This is all new, so I'm trying to understand here.”

“There's nothing to understand. You should have never seen it.”

“Well, I did see it so what am I supposed to do?”

“Not tell Sarah?” David said, not sure if he was joking or not.

“Sarah’s not even talking to me so you don't have to worry about that.” Jack's voice was somewhat bitter, though, who could blame him, really? 

“I'm sorry. I…” He trailed off and stayed silent for a moment,

“That's it?” Jack huffed, picking up his paintbrush again, “Sarah dumps me, you're dating Pulitzer, and we can't even be friends?”

“I don't know how to be friends with you like this. We can't go back to how it was before you and Sarah were dating. We definitely can't go back to how it was when you were dating.”

“If I'd known I was gonna lose both of… I just… You can't just ignore me.”

“What else do you suggest I do?”

“Forget everything that’s happened so we can go back to just hanging out?”

“I can’t just ‘forget’ Jack, that’s not how it works.” David huffed, then just decided to leave the situation and walk away, leaving Jack alone with his half-finished painting.

_\-- _❀_\--_

Katherine came over to the Jacob’s house that night, she was slouched on the sofa next to David, they were sharing a blanket and he had an arm draped around her shoulder as she leaned in, cuddled into his chest in a way. The television light was the only thing stopping the room from being in complete pitch black, Sixteen Candles was playing on the TV, “I'm sorry, isn't this character, Long Dong Duck… like, kinda racist?” David said,

“Not ‘kind of.’ Extremely racist.” She replied as if it were nothing.

“So why do you like this movie?”

“Why are even asking that question? Hello, Jake Ryan!” Les piped in,

Katherine scoffed, chewing on some popcorn, "Well, no, that's not why I like it. I just think it's a good film. Besides... I am so much better looking than that guy."

“You wish!”

“Oh, yeah?” She pulled herself up, moving over the popcorn bowl to the coffee table then she picked up a pillow and held it up, “Incoming!” before playfully whacking Les with it,

“Whoa, woah woah! Stop!” Les put out his hands in defense, stopping Katherine’s attack, “ This is hardly a fair fight! You a  _ way  _ older than me!”

Katherine opened her mouth to answer back when David said something, “Relax, she’s the same height as you.”

“I… okay, fair enough.” Les quickly grabbed a pillow and started to hit back,

Katherine made a face of disgust, making to dodge Les' attack. “Excuse me? It's not my fault he's tall for his age."

"I never said it was," David replied, he put his hands up in defense, "But it's your fault that you're short."

She gave him a glare "I am average height, David."

"Yeah, for a seventh grader..." He stifled a laugh, though Les laughed out loud with no shame.

"Oh you little-" She managed to cut herself off to censor herself, she, instead of throwing it at Les, launched the pillow at David.

_ I just hoped that Les wasn't getting too attached.  
_ _ In fact, I wish we could've kept our families out of it altogether. _

_\-- _❀_\--_

A week later, Katherine invited David around to her house to meet her parents and family, it only seemed fair as she had met basically all of his family. To say he was scared would be an understatement, he knew her family was bigger than most but he didn’t know what they were like, he wasn’t sure what to wear, but Les eventually helped him out and gave him a smart but somewhat casual outfit, which in all honesty wasn’t far from what he normally wore, only this time he was wearing a tie and he actually tucked in his shirt.

She bought him into the hallway, closing the front door behind them, she shrugged her own coat off then took David's to hang it on the quite crowded coat rack. Her house was… big, to say the least, though, to be fair, it had to fit eight people in, previously nine, plus the family dog, so the size was understandable, it was also surprisingly clean, other than a dog bed in the corner and a dresser in the hallway that was cluttered with half a dozen school bags with shoes piled underneath, clutter that couldn't be helped, it was clean. Katherine’s mother, Kate, came walking down the hallway, a wide but sweet smile on her face, and her arms out and open, ready to envelope the two of them in a hug, “Katherine, my dear! Is this David?”

He glanced nervously at Katherine from over Kate’s shoulder, and once he was free, David held out his hand, smiling and praying that they weren’t as clammy and sweaty as they were on the drive over, “Pleasure to meet you,”

_\-- _❀_\--_

During the time between their arrival and dinner, Katherine gave David a tour of the house, they stopped in her room for a little longer, she could sense he was panicking about it all, which was fair enough, he was about to meet his fake-girlfriends father, for crying out loud! Not to mention he was the principal of their highschool, she gave a few pointers, what not to do and what to do.  Not long after that conversation, they returned downstairs and into the dining room, the table was set for nine places, or rather, eight places and a high-chair, but either way, now he looked at it, that was a lot of people. Katherine made sure he was on the end, next, her mother and herself, then opposite David was Ralph, that way David was surrounded by calm, sensible people and Katherine could only hope that it made him panic less.

They sat down, with everyone else in the household following after, by the looks of it, Pulitzer was far on the other side of the table, opposite Kate, probably as the two heads of the house. Dinner seemed to go by quickly, the food was somewhat basic, not at all what David expected, but it was good, a simple spaghetti bolognese, it seemed strange for a family with such a high status to be eating a dish like that but David would much rather that than some fancy foreign dish with a name he couldn’t even pronounce.

He seemed to make conversation with most people at the table, the exception being Pulitzer, who stayed quiet the whole evening, which only made him more nervous, but he spoke to Ralph about career ideas and options, to Joe about the whole romance side - how they met, if they’ve kissed, where they went on their first date and it began getting a little less PG so Ralph butted in again about how how bad the weather had been. Edith decided that she wanted her fill so she asked him all about what shampoo he used on his hair seen as it did look “Fluffy, you know, like a sheep.” which he wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or not, but he took it, then Constance joined in with a sassy remark about how nerdy he looked with a tie to which Katherine told her off and gave her a glare, then muttering an apology to David.

Constance and Edith were going around and collecting up everyones’ plates and the other family members seemed to be busy chatting, or rather arguing, amongst themselves when Kate spoke up once again, “So, Katherine tells me that you have two siblings?”

It wasn’t great timing seen as David was having a drink of water when she spoke but he tried to brush it off, “Yeah, I have an older sister who just left for college, and I have a brother who's eleven.”

“Aw! Well, your mum must love having so few children, I’ve got this group of heathens!” She laughed, gesturing to the nearly full table, David felt a small pang in his heart, but that was normal by now, he brushed it off and kept a smile on his face,

“Mother, I told you. Davey’s mother passed away when he was little.” Katherine piped in quietly.

Kate’s face fell, “I- my apologies, David, I…”

“Actually, she... she did love having us,” He reassured before continuing, “Although, Les is definitely still a heathen.”

\---

Time passed, David couldn’t say how long, but the hard part was over now and he gave himself a mental pat on the back for not messing up too badly, if at all. The two were alone, in the kitchen, a pile of dishes and crockery on the side, Katherine was loading them into the dishwasher and just generally cleaning the kitchen while David stood, leaning against the counter, “Sorry about my father, I could see him giving you glares and looks throughout the whole evening… he’s… difficult.” She apologised, 

“Don’t worry about it, it’s alright,” He replied, looking around the room, specifically on the window sill, it had a single photo frame with a girl he just vaguely recognised, but he just assumed it was Lucille - who Katherine had mentioned once or twice, and surrounding the frame was an array of flowers and plants, he guessed it was some sort of memorial, it was sweet, all they had for his mum was a photo of her in the hallway, it didn’t even have a fancy frame, it was just wooden and small.

“You sure?” She glanced at him for a moment,

“Mhm.” He hummed, glancing over to the fridge where drawings, certificates and just funny looking photos were, the drawings where probably by the younger members of the family, Herbert and Constance, and well, the certificates were named and were for all sorts of things, amongst others, one was for a chilli eating competition, the name 'Ralph Pulitzer' written on it, and one was for some sort of literature competition the writing was cursive and fancy but he could just about read it and it was awarded to Katherine, he smiled. Dotted amongst all of that was the amusing family photos, he could easily pick out the ones with Katherine in seen as she was the only one with ginger hair, and she was in quite a lot, one was of her sleeping but she had a mustache and glasses drawn on her face, another was of her on stage at a spelling bee, judging by the smile on her face and the small trophy in her hand, she had just won.

Katherine nodded, “Okay.” She finished with the dishes and went over to the sink to grab a washcloth to wipe down the countertops, “He’s like this with anyone I bring home, partner or friend.”

He pulled his eyes away from the dozens of photos on the fridge, “It’s okay, I get it, ish.” 

“And I’m really about what my mother said to you, about your mum,”

He shook his head, “No, it's okay. Honestly, you know, it's nice to talk about her like it's normal. Like it's not some tragedy.” He smiled faintly at that, “Is it weird not having your sister around?”

“It's not as weird as it used to be. Sometimes I walk around the house and see that she's not in any photos anymore other than the odd few, and I really miss her. But then I look at all this shit she put our family through, she was kind of problematic, always going on the rails, cost us a shit ton of money. Sometimes I get so mad at her that I’m glad she’s gone.” She sighed sadly but somewhat annoyed, 

“You don't mean that. You can be mad at someone and still miss them.”

Katherine tossed the cloth into the sink, eager to change the subject, “…I bet you really miss your mum, huh?” then she walked over and pushed herself up and sat on the counter opposite David.

“Yeah, every day. But you know, it's… It's been so long now that… Okay, it's like this, I'll be doing my homework, or I will be washing dishes or something, and I'm thinking about my family, and I forget there was a time where it wasn't just my dad and my siblings. And it only happens for like a quarter of a second, but… I feel really, really guilty about it.” He took a breath, starting to realise how fast his heart was beating, “I've never told anyone that before.”

“I mean, I get it. It makes sense to me.” She looked thoughtful for a moment then shook her head, pushing her hair off of her face, “I don't actually hate my sister, I didn't mean it like that. Sorry.”

“It's okay, it's actually really nice having someone to talk to about this stuff. You're a good listener.”

“Yeah?” Katherine smiled, swinging her legs just slightly, “Why, thank you, you are too.”

“Thank you,” He chuckled,

“You're welcome.”

_ Being with Katherine was so easy that sometimes I let myself pretend it wasn't fake. _

_\-- _❀_\--_

“Remind me again why we have to eat these subs under the bleachers?” David asked, he and Crutchie were sat beneath the bleachers right next to the running track, Crutchie’s boyfriend Finch had taken a trip to the subway not actually too far from the school and bought back a sandwich and drink back for them both.

“Dude, we can't have these contraband cups out in the open!” Crutchie replied as if it were obvious, “Don't want the powers-that-be catching on to my lunchtime truancy vibes. P.S. that sub is tight, right?” David nodded, not entirely sure what that even meant.

There were a few footsteps from above them, David glanced up to see who it was, he didn’t catch a face but the voice belonged to Darcy, that was one thing he was sure about, “I don't know, Kath. It's like you don't have time for me anymore. All you do is hang out with him.” By that he assumed that it was Darcy and Katherine, they sat down above him and Crutchie,

“Am I supposed to wait while you're off with this college guy?” She sounded tired, annoyed even,

David shook his head and whispered, already tossing his drink into his backpack and wrapping his sandwich back in the paper in a rush, “We should leave, this sounds private.”

“Are you insane? That's your girlfriend!” Crutchie stage whispered and looked at him wide eyed,

“He's not a good listener.” Darcy continued, from Crutchie’s view he could see that Darcy was placing his hand on Katherine’s shoulder, it then drifted down to her waist. He gave David a look to see for himself but he refused,

“'Cause he's not at your beck and call like I am.” Katherine sighed and shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to seem possessive, Darcy moved his hand away, “Darcy, you can't keep doing this to me.”

He changed the topic quickly, “He's not coming on the ski trip, is he? That's _our_ thing.”

She shrugged, “What does it matter? You have a boyfriend.”

“Yeah, but… maybe by then… I won't.”

“Dude! Darcy is after your girl.” Crutchie looked back at David, who gave him a sad look. This was inevitable, David knew this was coming, maybe he should call it off now while his feelings weren’t too strong, Katherine had what she wanted now - for Darcy to want to get back together, so now all David could do now was make a mental note to pick up a few extra boxes of tissues and cookies for the weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo i'm sorry this is late i was in london watching jeremy jordan and holy fuck i was Vibrating and i go a photo afterwards and i have a signed postcard and program and holy shit oahsiuahsduis jasakj i can't wioejdsjk sorry yeah i'm s ksjaksja itwassogood i shit you not sorry i'm aksjka i can't-
> 
> thanks for reading uhhh comments and kudos are appreciated,, have a lit day, fam


	6. Yogurt Drinks and Facemasks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Shouldn't you be thanking me? You got to sit next to who you actually wanted.”
> 
> “For someone who has such good grades, you can be so dense sometimes.”
> 
> “What?”

**Word Count: 3230**

* * *

David met up with Jack again, this time they were just in the corridor, in a small nook where there were a few displays of students’ work, “I'm sorry, I know you don't want to hear about Katherine stuff, but I needed to talk to someone I thought might understand. I feel like the more used to him I get, the more it's gonna hurt when she inevitably gets back with Darcy, and I'm so mad at myself because I should've seen this coming.”

Jack stayed silent for a moment but then he spoke up, “Nah, it’s cool. I don't know what to tell you. That sucks. I'm sorry.”

They were interrupted by Katherine, she had just turned the corner and stopped abruptly, she looked at the pair then at David directly, “Davey! Can I talk to you?”

“Want me to wait?” Jack asked,

David shook his head, slowly walking towards Katherine, “I wouldn’t. I'll see you later.”

They had barely gotten all the way down the corridor before she said anything, “What do you think people are gonna say when they see my boyfriend cozying up to Kelly?”

He held back a sort of laugh, it was more like a 'you are being ridiculous' laugh than one of humour, “What do you think, when they hear you're begging to get back with Darcy?”

So, she wasn’t exactly begging to get back together, but that was irrelevant right now, the problem was that he overheard that conversation in the first place, “So you're spying on me now?”

“Not intentionally.” He kept looking ahead, he wasn’t angry, but more pissed off, not that he could show it, though, he didn’t exactly have a reason to be, that Katherine knew of at least.

“Okay, so I was talking to Darcy. So what? You don't even post about us on your Instagram.”

That didn’t seem like a good argument to David, it didn’t really link but she had a fair point and he had a fair reason, “'Cause I don't want my Les or Sarah to see.”

She stopped walking, they had just reached the entry hallway of the school, David stopped with her,“Yeah, like Les is gonna care.”

“I'm talking about Sarah.” He corrected, then he took a breath, this could be a mistake, “Look, Kath… I don't think either one of us thought this was going to go on for this long, but Jack and I are cool, Darcy’s jealous, I think… I think that we need to call it.”

Katherine looked at him, wide eyed and mouth open, “I can't believe you're trying to break up with me before the ski trip! That's in the contract,” She took a breath before speaking again, “Plus it was your idea for you to go!”

“Only if we're still together.” He added,

“We are still together!” She half-yelled, it surprised her that David, and herself for that matter, didn’t flinch or retreat, “You're trying to pull out because you're scared.”

“What do I have to be scared about?” His voice was stronger, something she hadn’t seen before, even with class presentations, he was still somewhat quiet and he had to restart his sentences every so often. But this? This was something she’d never seen before - a clear voice, loud, like he could stand his ground.

She shrugged, “You tell me, Jacobs.” then walked away slowly, maybe thinking it was best to leave it alone for a while.

_ How do you tell your fake girlfriend you can't go skiing with her because you're starting to have real feelings?  
_ _ You can't. So you pivot. _

Katherine only got so fat before David spoke up again, “Fine then.” She turned around to hear what he had to say, he began walking down the steps after her, “I'll go if Crutchie goes.”

_\-- _❀_\--_

“I'm not denying your right to put food on the table for your family. I just think it's odd that a man would want to become a gynecologist. Like when you were in college, you thought, ‘I'd really love to look at vaginas all day.’” Crutchie stood in the kitchen of the Jacobs’ home, he must have not been there long if he was still standing, he tended to sit if he was staying long because of his leg. Mayer was there too, he was next to the toaster, it had just popped and he was smothering the slices in peanut butter

“Leaving the kitchen now, Crutchie.” Mayer walked off into the dining room carrying the plate of toast,

David walked through the door, gently closing it and pulling off his coat and hanging it on the hat stand that stood by the front door, “Hi, guys.” He greeted, he smiled but he couldn’t tell if it was a fake or a genuine smile.

“Hey.” Crutchie smiled, deciding to make his way over to the sofa, he plopped himself down, leaning his crutches up next to him,

“Hey, kiddo.” Mayer called from the dining room, apparently having heard David’s voice.

“Hi, Dad.” David called back before walking over and sitting down next to Crutchie.

“So, what's up? Why's your girlfriend harassing me about coming on the ski trip? You know I don't do school functions. I can’t even ski! Like, physically, I can’t.” Crutchie sort of laughed, it was annoying when the ski trip was first announced but he got over it and he didn’t care as much, he had far better things to do.

“Yes, and that is why I told him I would only go if you would, knowing that you wouldn't.”

“Wait… You have to go! Darcy’s definitely gonna make a move on Katherine if you don’t.”

“So let him.” He was doing it, David was really just going to give up. “I'm sick of having his little snake eyes on me all the time.”

“Dude, no! Darcy always gets what she wants and it's bullshit! You get Katherine. I'll make sure of it. I'm coming on that trip.” He gave his signature toothy, bright smile,

“I'm really tired of you using me to get back at Darcy.” David sighed, picking up a pillow and hugging it tightly,

“It's not just that. Since you've been with Katherine....” He smiled, “Well, I don't know, Davey, I've never seen you so happy.”

“David, he's right.” Mayer spoke up again, it wasn’t a surprise that he had heard the conversation, there was only a wooden divider that separated the dining room from the rest of the living space downstairs, he came and walked over, by the looks of it he was heading to the bathroom. “I'm sorry, I wasn't eavesdropping, but I haven't seen you have so much fun going to parties and making new friends… and that makes your old man very happy.”

“That was kind of sweet.” Crutchie commented the moment he was out of sight.

“Yeah…” David trailed off, sort of lost in thought, things were starting to go down hill and he didn’t know what to do. It was a good idea to begin with, but it’s lasted too long, it’s gone too far. Katherine was right. He wanted to pull out because he was scared.

_\-- _❀_\--_

Katherine sat in the car with Kate, her mother, Katherine was just checking through her rucksack to check she had anything she’d need for the coach journey, “We’re early but thank you, mum. See you in a couple of days.” Katherine reached over to open the car door once she was done with her bag but Kate’s voice stopped her.

“We need to talk about your sexual health.” She said it pretty casually, Katherine had gotten the talk before, every time she made it official with a boy, and while it had only been twice, she’d still gotten the talk both times, each one just as awkward as the other.

She cringed, knowing she couldn’t exactly leave because that would just start up another argument between her and her mother. “No. No, please, no-”

“As your mother, I think you're too young to have sex. I know that you're smart enough not to do things just because a boy may want you to, and I know how you were with Darcy,”

“Okay, let's make this end.”

“It's your decision but I want you to be safe.” Kate took out a small box from her handbag and presented them to Katherine. A box of condoms.

“Why are you giving me these?” 

“Pulling out isn't protection.”

“Oh, my God. I'm getting out.” Katherine gave up and just opened the car door and stepped out, quickly stuffing the box to the very bottom of her bag before zipping it up and swinging it onto her back, 

“Don't forget to have fun.” Kate smiled sweetly, as if the conversation they just had wasn’t completely awkward.

Katherine frowned, “Yes, well, I have a lot of rubbers for that, specifically.” then she went to the boot of the car to grab her suitcase, she gave her mother a thumbs up and closed the door so that she could drive away.

\---

Seen as she was one of the first ones on the bus, Katherine found a seat, it was sort of in the middle - she didn’t care for the whole ‘back of the coach’ thing.

After a while, other people began to turn up and settle in their seats, she was scrolling through her phone when David walked past her, she only assumed he didn’t spot her so she spoke up, “Whoa. Hey. Where are you going?”

“I'm gonna go sit with Crutchie.” He said, as if it was obvious, he gestured towards a sleeping Crutchie, somewhat near the back of the coach,

“Crutchie? Come on, he's sleeping. I saw his Snapchat. He was up all night watching Netflix, binging  _ FRIENDS _ .” She tried to reason, she didn’t think it was going to work but she did really want to sit next to David.

“That's more reason to sit with him. Don't want him to go swallowing his tongue or anything.” He gave a half smile then walked off, he sat next to Crutchie, mumbling under his breath, assuming Crutchie was asleep, “This was a mistake.”

“Tell me about it.” Crutchie grumbled when he felt David sit down next to him, “I can't believe I let you convince me to go on a trip that requires getting up before 7:00.” He shuffled and leaned on the taller boy’s shoulder, using his scrunched up hoodie as a pillow.

Darcy came up to Katherine almost the moment he saw her, he smiled sweet but sinister. “Is this seat taken?”

“Uh…No” She gave a fake smile and went digging in her bag for ear plugs and her phone, maybe she could get away with listening to music for the whole journey.

_\-- _❀_\--_

The journey passed, David slept most of the way, as did Crutchie and Katherine sat with her ear plugs in, listening to every song on her phone twice, occasionally making small talk with Darcy, who seemed to get more annoyed as the drive went on. They eventually arrived at the lodge where they were staying, it looked like something from a fiction book, it was wooden and red carpets inside and a log fire surrounded by sofas in the lobby, it was snowing outside too, in fact, snow balls were already being thrown about.

The hoard of students walked in and David made a note to stick with Crutchie, “Who pulls an all-nighter on a school night?” David asked, they stayed near the back where it was less crowded, every so often he caught a glimpse of Katherine’s hair and it hurt, sure, but he was going to deal with it, he didn’t exactly have a choice.

“Uh, lots of people do.” Crutchie answered, “Plus, it was worth it, so…?”

“Ah, okay.”

David looked up, he could see a head of ginger hair so almost automatically he looked over for more than a moment, instead of Katherine it was Albert, standing on a table with a collection of keycards, two per cardboard pocket, in his hands, “They said, ‘Albert, make sure everyone sleeps in their assigned room.’ And I said, ‘Overruled, sleep where you want, sluts.’” He tossed the cards into the air and they landed in a mess on the ground, students reached and grabbed any key card they could, David walked over when it was quieter and picked up the last two key cards,

David returned and Crutchie raised an eyebrow at Albert and the group he was speaking to, they all wore a lanyard around their neck, David recognised all of them, but only vaguely, other than Albert, who he knew through Katherine, and another, called Tommy Boy, who were both in his grade. Crutchie wrinkled his nose, “They're the chaperones?”

David could see Darcy and Katherine at the bottom of the staircase, not far from him, “See you on Black Diamond, Kath?” Darcy was leaning against the wall, he had a smirk on his face, nothing suggestive though - it was more challenging that anything else, Katherine didn’t reply, she gave a hum and a nod but she didn’t seem happy, “Last down the slope owes the other a hot toddy.”

Crutchie could see where David’s eyes were looking, his eyes softened and he said, only loud enough for the two of them to hear, “Go get your girl!”

David gave him a look of pure disgust and fear, “Are you kidding? I can't go down the Black Diamond. I don't even know how to put on the boots. I was just going to stay with you.

“No. I’m going off to do some photography with Finch. Besides, if you're not gonna ski, what are you planning on doing all weekend?” 

“I came prepared.” David pulled off his backpack and pulled about five books out:  _ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire _ ,  _ What if it’s us _ ,  _ Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel _ , and then two text books from school, one for English and one for History.

“Oh, no. That is a major backslide for you.” Crutchie called Racetrack over, they were sort of friends, and he’d seen him and David together at school so he assumed that they were on good times.

He swaggered over, already holding a can of beer, “What's up, dude?”

“Can you help me convince Davey to come ski with us?”

“Yeah, right. You think I'm going skiing? It's cold outside, I don't do cold.”

“What?” Crutchie looked at him, almost flabbergasted,

“Hey, Davey, how about some face masks?” Racetrack suggested,

“Sounds good to me.” David gave Crutchie a smile,

_\-- _❀_\--_

“So you guys have been faking it this entire time?” Racetrack asked, he was laying on Crutchie’s bed, he was peeling off the facemask, David was doing the same, they were both in a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie, just relaxing for the evening.

“Yes, and you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay?” David sighed, “It's just... I'm so confused. Just had to let it out. I do not care about the genesis of it all.”

“I just know she likes you. I can tell by the way she looks at you.” Racetrack laughed, though he was serious,

David cocked an eyebrow, “So, how does she look at me?”

“Like you're a sexy little Rubik's Cube. She can't figure you out, but she's having fun trying.”

“It doesn't matter,” He screwed up his used facemask and walked over to throw it in the bin, “She's still so obsessed with Darcy, and I'm just another of the stupid guys who fell for Pulitzer. It's almost embarrassing.”

“Look, every guy, you know, gets a bit obsessed with, at first… you know… bow chicka wow wow…” Racetrack went silent for a moment, “...Okay, let's look at the facts, shall we? The whole fake relationship was his idea, you came up with a no-kissing rule, you're trying to break up with him, and you're carb-loading with a gay man while she's probably sat alone in her room, doing homework or something, just hoping that you’re going to come and knock. So I'd say if anyone stupidly fell for someone who doesn't like them back, it's not you. It's Pulitzer.” 

“You think she's waiting for me?”

“Hell yeah! I’ll tell you what, you go down to the hot tub, I’ll go and tell her where you are,” Racetrack was already getting up and pulling on some shoes to go out, David assumed that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

He huffed but nodded, “Mmm… okay, sure.”

_\-- _❀_\--_

David wandered down to the hot tub, there was no one there and God it was cold, he left his room in a hoodie and tracksuit bottoms but with swimming trunks underneath, he pulled off his clothes and left them draped over a bench then climbed into the hot tub, he shivered as he got in, but the chill he felt wouldn’t last long. It was a few minutes before anyone turned up, “All by yourself out here?” It was Katherine, she was wearing a coat and by the look of her bare legs she was wearing shorts, or maybe just a short nightgown. David didn’t reply, he was almost too anxious to, besides, what would he even say? “So what, now you're ignoring me?”

He scoffed, “Oh, I'm the one ignoring you? That's funny.” He went to fiddle with his jumper - only to realise that he wasn’t wearing one so he sat there, with no idea what to say or do, “Sorry I'm not a good skier, you didn't offer to teach me.”

She began walking over and sat on the edge of the hot tub, careful for her coat not to get wet, “Oh, am I supposed to be sweet to you after you don't sit with me on the ride over?”

He raised his eyebrows, “Shouldn't you be thanking me? You got to sit next to who you actually wanted.”

Katherine laughed and shook her head, “For someone who has such good grades, you can be so dense sometimes.”

“What?” David tilted his head in confusion,

She took a breath, “I wanted to sit next to you, David. I even packed snacks, I asked Les where to find those yogurt drinks you like so much.”

“The Korean store is all the way across town.”

“I know. So if I went all the way across town to get something you like, that means…”

“You must really like yogurt?”

“You are impossible.” She pulled off her coat, revealing a light pink nightgown underneath it fell to her mid thigh and had a sort of shiny look to the fabric, then she walked over and draped it over the bench, she shivered at the cold air, “Sorry I didn't sit next to you.”

“It's alright.” He replied, Katherine stepped into the hot tub, she gave him a small smile, not entirely sure whether this was a stupid idea or not, “You're coming in… in your nightgown.”

“I forgot to bring a bathing suit.” She explained, she kept walking and after probably two or three steps she eventually stood in front of him, “Hi.” She had a genuine grin across her face,

David reached up a hand and tucked some hair behind her ear, and he kissed her lips gently, “There's no one like you, Pulitzer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi sorry it's kinda late again i've been Busy and all that, school and fundraisers mainly skjaks sorry
> 
> my writing is slowly getting worse lmao i'm sorry sjsj,, i don't even know what my chapter names are anymore i am a m e s s
> 
> thanks for reading!! kudos and comments are appreciated, also have a nice day or i will personally come cheer you up


	7. Take Out and Hot Tubs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hey as a warning there's some at the beginning, i've put a bold -- ❀ -- for when it's over in case you'd rather skip it
> 
> “Jack, just go back inside.”
> 
> “No, it's alright.”
> 
> “No, no. Are you serious right now?” This isn't about Darcy and I, it's about you and Jack! Are you kidding me? This is the reason you broke up with me? You're still in love with this… Van Gogh wannabe?”

**Word Count: 2334**

* * *

Katherine’s lips were soft. So soft. David gripped her waist gently but securely and pulled her closer so that she was straddling his lap, she smiled against his lips, then she pulled away,

“What?” He asked, he quickly moved his hands away from her waist, “Was that too far? I’m so sorry- I didn’t mean to upset you-”

“Davey,” She smiled sweetly, “I just wanted to look at you,” She moved her arms to rest on his shoulders, he flushed red and stayed silent again. “...Can I kiss you again?” Katherine had a faint blush on her face, he kept quiet, lips parted and nodded, leaning in. Katherine kissed him again and shifted so that they were chest-to chest. Katherine tilted her head, their lips still locked, David tilted his head the other way, he was just taking her lead seen as he had absolutely no clue what he was doing. She let her hands tangle themselves in his hair, not to pull or tug, to just rest and gently comb through, he put her hand at the small of her back, gently rubbing his thumb over her skin, Katherine hummed and David began to kiss along her jaw.

And God did David love this. God did her love her, though to say that might be a stretch.

He loved the softness of her lips. He loved how it was like he was holding the whole world when he held her. He loved how she experimented with gentle tugs on his hair, which he may have been enjoying a little more than he should have been. He loved how every so often she’d let out a hum, or she’d sigh or giggle against his lips. He loved the way she’d nip at his lip and how she’d-

“Oh! My _go_ _ odness _ -” He mumbled, if Katherine hadn't been so close then she probably wouldn't have heard it, but it made her smile.

And he so hopelessly loved the way her curls were pulled back into some sort of messy bun and how the few stray strands danced on the collar bone he so desperately wanted to-

He didn’t know how long he’d been kissing Katherine but he did know he didn’t want to stop, she eventually pulled back and gave him a lazy grin, “We should probably head back inside…”

David nodded and pulled his hands away so she could get out, he followed after her, she shivered in the cold and mumbled something about how she didn’t want to get her coat wet, he passed her his hoodie, “You sure?” She asked and once again he nodded, so she pulled it on, she made a face at the feel of her wet nightgown being against her skin and David laughed but began to lead them inside. They held hands and once they got to the corridor they parted, “Good night, Davey.” She went up onto her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek,

“Good night.” He smiled and blushed, though he should definitely be used to it by now.

**\-- ❀ -- **

The next morning Katherine was still buzzing, of course she had made out with guys before but nothing had ever felt _so __right_ and no one had ever felt _so right _in her hands.

The bus erupted into cheering and clapping as she stepped onto the bus, she brushed it off walked down the aisle and managed to find where David was sitting, alone, behind him was Crutchie and Finch, Finch was already falling asleep and Crutchie was reading something on his phone. David looked up at the sound of more clapping and cheers, it had been the same when he stepped on, thought quieter seen as he was on the bus earlier, while it did make him a little embarrassed and uneasy, he couldn't help but smile, he was finally a little more then a nobody, now people knew his name and a few his birthday. “Hey. Um... You didn't tell anyone about last night, did you? They did the same cheering thing when I got on,” David asked, he had put one of his bags on the seat next to him so no one took it, but he moved the bag at the sight of Katherine.

She sat beside him, shoving her bag onto the floor, next to her feet, “No, that's just how people act with couples on the ski trip,”

“Ah okay…” He nodded, “Sorry, just checking,”

“All good,” She took a breath and glanced at him, “Hey, I'm tired. Can I use you as a pillow?” He nodded and she rested her head on his shoulder, though he had to slouch down a bit, but it worked out fine, it was a little comfier this way.

\-- ❀ -- 

A few minutes after they had gotten off of the coach, Katherine had disappeared to find her parents who were waiting in their car somewhere in the school car park, so David was alone and Darcy approached him, a look of smugness, “Hey, Davey. I think it's so cool that you came out on the ski trip.” He grinned, “Hope you had fun.”

David turned around and looked down at the boy, “Gee… Thank you, Darcy. I did.”

“Also, I just wanted to say I think it's really big of you, being so understanding about my friendship with Kathy.”

“What?”

“Oh, I just mean… a lot of guys would be pretty weirded out by their girlfriend sleeping in someone else's room, but you're so trusting… I remember that about you from middle school.” Darcy started to fiddle with a pink scrunchie that was around his wrist as he spoke, he pinged it against his wrist, as if he was trying to draw attention to it,

David glanced down, he narrowed his eyes, it was familiar but he couldn’t tell where he recognised it from, “Where did you get that?”

Darcy gave a rather sweet and happy smile, “Oh, Kathy told me to hold onto it for her. Isn't that cute?” Someone called Darcy, David recognised him to be the same boy who was with him at Alberts party, Bill? Was it? “Well, have a nice day.” It left David with a sour taste in his mouth, something wasn’t right.

Not long after Darcy had left, Katherine returned, she didn’t have her bags, seen as she probably left them in the car so she could help David carry his, “Hi. Ready to go?”

“Did you go to Darcy’s room last night?” He asked, he didn’t bother to look at her, but his face said it all, he was pissed, no, not pissed, disappointed.

Her face fell, but she kept her head up, “Uh, yeah, but-” 

He knew it. He knew this would happen, he knew she was still obsessed with Darcy, that, as soon as she got the chance, she would go running back to him, that he was only a pawn to make Darcy jealous. “Why does he have your scrunchie, Kath? What happened? Am I just a joke to you?”

“No, you're not.” She took a breath, “It’s not what you think, I promise. Besides, you didn’t even give me my scrunchie after the party… so whatever you saw him with can’t have been mine...” The realisation hit her. “You lost it, didn’t you?”

“No- oh my god, I didn’t-” He took a breath to calm himself, he could already feel himself shaking, “I can’t remember…” He was trying to take deep breaths, trying to stop the tears in his eyes, trying to stop the world from closing in on him, he stuttered out, half mumbling, “Sorry I need to go,”

“Davey- wait- Can we just talk about this? Let me drive you home, I'll explain. Or we can walk if you don’t want my parents getting involved,”

“I would rather walk home.” He said, but he changed his mind, “Actually, I'd rather drive myself than get into a car with you right now.” He had never meant for his words to come out as harsh as they did, but he couldn't help it, he panicked and the last person he wanted to see at that moment was Katherine.

\-- ❀ -- 

“You're home! Davey? What’s wrong?” Les answered the door, which in complete honesty was better than Mayer answering, David had managed to walk home, hauling his bags behind him, it wasn’t too far of a walk but it did take him a while with the luggage, “Why is your face all red and-?” He opened the door fully so David could come inside, he dropped all of his bags in a small nook they had under the staircase,

David cut him off, and looked around, he could see the menorah on the dresser in the hall, Esther’s photo had been moved to the side just temporarily, above the fireplace was a blue banner that read ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ that was looked homemade, probably by Les, and just in general there were various blue lanterns pinned to walls and vases on coffee tables around the room, “Did you do this all yourself?”

“Well…” Les trailed off, Sarah came in, she was behind the dining room divider,

“Hey, Davey.”

He almost cried on the spot, “Oh my God!” He ran over and enveloped her in a tight hug, “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you…” She replied, hugging him back just as tightly,

Reluctantly, he pulled away, “Tell us about Scotland.”

Sarah led them over to the kitchen, on the counter there were a few bowls that looked like they were full of different mixes, “Okay. Well, even when it's freezing, Scottish girls still wear short shorts and high heels when we go out to bars and stuff.”

“You go to bars?” David raised an eyebrow, moving to sit up on the only clear counter in their kitchen.

“Everybody does, the legal drinking age is 18 over there.”

Les looked at her, somewhat gobsmacked, “You drink? Who is she?”

The older boy laughed, “She's Sarah.” 

“Are you going to invite Jack over for dinner?” Les asked Sarah, David completely forgot, Les had no idea what happened that night, when Sarah and Jack broke up.

“Why don't we make it a Jacobs kids’ night?” Sarah suggested,

“Plus Dad?”

“Kids’ night plus Dad. Just family.”

Les looked to David, “Guess that means you can't invite Katherine.”

“Katherine?” A smile tugged at Sarah’s lips, she recognised the name and if it was who she thought it was then she was somewhat proud of David for getting into a totally different crowd.

Then the doorbell rang, knowing who it would be, David got down and began walking towards the door, “I'd better go get that. Excuse me.”

It was Katherine, of course, “Hey. We need to talk.”

David stepped outside and closed the door, “Not here.” He then looked at her for her to continue,

She took a breath, “Just so you know, nothing happened between Darcy and I last night.”

He shook his head, “You went to his room in the first place.”

“Look,” Katherine huffed, “Darcy and I dated for a long time. Those feelings aren't just going to go away, we’ve got history.”

There were a few moments of silence, David took a breath, just say what you’re thinking, “I'm tired of being second best or fake best.”

“No, you don’t get it. Last night was-”

He leaned against one of the posts on the porch, “Last night was a mistake. Physical stuff might not be a big deal to you, but to me, it is.”

Her voice was starting to grow in volume, a red flag. “Who says it's not a big deal to me?” Could anyone blame her though? Was that what he thought of her?

“Says every single guy on that coach!”

“Well! They were clapping and praising you like a god, and you eat it up.” 

“Okay. Look, I…” He tried to take a breath, stay calm. “Katherine, just leave.”

“Can we go inside and talk?” She took a few steps towards the door before a voice stopped her,

Jack had apparently been just the other side of the fence, which made sense considering him and David were neighbours,“He asked you to leave, buddy.”

_ No, no, no, no- not now. Jack, what the fuck? _

“Jack, just go back inside.”

“No, it's alright.”

“No, no. Are you serious right now?” Her face was starting to grow red with fury, in fact, David was sure that he could see smoke coming out of her ears, there might not have been a reason for her to be as angry as this but she was always known for how hot headed she could get “This isn't about Darcy and I, it's about you and Jack! Are you kidding me? This is the reason you broke up with me? You're still in love with this… Van Gogh wannabe?”

“If Davey broke up with you, it's because he's coming to the life-altering revelation he's too good for you.”

“You're in love with Jack?” It was Sarah. She stood in the doorway, Les was next to hear, they must have heard the yelling and worried.

_ How long had they been there? _

David turned around and saw her, she had a few tears in her eyes, as did he, “Sarah, no…” She disappeared through the door, leaving Les who quickly followed behind her with a confused look on his face. David yelled, just like the argument that they had in the school corridor. “Katherine, go home!”

“I didn't know she was home yet...” She muttered, then maybe just decided it would be best to leave, so she did.

He heard and replied, “Yeah, she finished her exams early. It was a surprise.” then returned inside, he would have stayed and spoken to Jack, but he seemed to have left at some point,

Les was inside waiting for him, he didn’t look as confused, he’d managed to piece things together, though he still didn’t understand completely. “Guess I'll order a pizza.”

_ Well, at least the worst is over. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha sorry it's late again i was churching because remebrance sunday and uhh i was tired so i'm now doing this on a monday night instead of my homework :))
> 
> sorry it's bad lol but hopefully the steam will make up for it,, thanks lads for reading, please leave comments and kudos and i really fuckignh hoped you enjoyed this bad boy


	8. Black Coffee and Lacrosse fields

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I don't know what happened with you two, but I know how you opened up when she was around. Not with us, 'cause you've always been like that with us, but to the world… Seeing you come alive like that, you remind me of her. Just don't hide that part of yourself, okay?”
> 
> “Dad…” He took a breath, “I really miss her.”

**Word Count: 3315**

* * *

“OH MY FUCKING GO-SH! OH SHIT-FUCK-!” David yelled, it was almost a scream, though it was muffled through the walls and floors but Les and Mayer managed to hear it,

“Teenagers.” Les rolled his eyes, scanning the board for his next move.

“Tell me about it.” Mayer replied, he chuckled but a part of him couldn't help but be concerned seen as his son just screamed

Les moved the chess piece and took Mayer’s king, “Also... checkmate.”

“You little…” The man trailed off to censor himself, but he gave a smile and after jotting something down on a sheet of paper next to him, he began to reset the board whilst Les helped.

\---

There were three knocks at Sarah’s door, she ignored it. David began to open the door at the lack of reply, “I'm busy.”

“Wait, Sarah, please. I need your help.” He wandered in and gave her his phone. He’d been sent a video of him and Katherine making out in the hot tub, now that he saw it, it did almost look like they were having sex.

Sarah had a look, it was awkward, watching a video of your brother making out with a girl, especially when you thought he was gay, but she managed to give some advice. David also managed to explain the whole situation, including that the relationship was fake, “Well… she’s completely covered up and we only see her back. If you hadn't been tagged, it could be anybody.” She breathed, “It's worse for Katherine than it is for you. It's never worse for the guys.”

“God, how did I let this happen?” He flopped back onto her bed with an annoyed huff, he was hugging one of her pillows tightly, “I'm so stupid.”

“Hey… Davey. We're gonna fix this. Give me the pillow. Come on.”

He reluctantly tossed her the pillow and sat up, “I know you're only being nice to me 'cause I accidentally made a sex tape and you feel bad.”

She gave him his phone back, “I do feel bad for you. But I also don't understand why you didn't tell me all this was happening in the first place.”

“I thought you were going to hate me.”

“I could never hate you. But when I heard Katherine, I thought you were trying to date Jack now or something.”

“How could you think I would do that to you? You're my sister.”

“You wouldn't even Skype with me, what am I supposed to think?”

“I wouldn't Skype with you because I was lying to every person, and I knew I couldn't lie to you.”

“I thought you didn't need me anymore.”

“Are you kidding me? Look what happened when you were gone! I made a sex tape, and I haven't even had sex!” He sniffled a little, but he managed to get a laugh out.

“Come here.” Sarah opened her arms for a hug, which he quite gratefully took, she glanced to the side and saw Les standing in her open doorway, “How long have you been there?”

“Not long…” He trailed off, “Uh… Long.”

She gestured him over and sat them all on her bed, in a circle and made them hold hands, “Okay, let's make a pact. No more secrets between the Jacobs kids.”

“But… I have a secret, too.” Les took a breath, 'just rip it off like a band-aid' he told himself. “I sent the letters.”

David took a moment to glare at the boy then moved to grab him, “I'm gonna kill you.”

Sarah managed to jump in front of Les, “No, Davey! No! He’s a kid!

“You were so lonely and I could tell Katherine liked you.” Les explained, “I knew you wouldn't do anything about it!”

“So you sent all five?” David moved and grabbed the broom that was up against the wall, he held it with two hands, like a weapon.

“I thought five chances at a boyfriend or a girlfriend or whatever had better odds! I missed having Jack over for dinner!”

“Alright! Give me the broom.” Sarah held out her hands, David gave it to her but gritted his teeth, “Look, his logic was off, but his heart was in the right place.”

“His face is gonna be in the wrong place!” David mumbled, if he wasn’t serious, Sarah would have laughed.

“Davey, before you murder our brother, could I just ask you a question? If you didn't want those letters to be sent, why did you address them?”

He sort of smiled and scratched the back of his neck, “It's not like I added a stamp!”

“Can you admit that some part of you doesn't want everything in your life to be a fantasy?”

“Maybe…”

“So… If I can forgive you for writing my boyfriend a love letter, do you think you could forgive Les for sending them?”

David sighed but nodded and glared at Les, “You owe me cookies for the rest of your life.”

“Thank God. I was really hoping to make it to seventh grade.”

_\-- _❀_\--_

_ Oh, yeah. It didn't feel like Hanukkah, or just the holiday season in general, knowing my hot tub escapades had gone viral, but, of course, Sarah knew exactly what to do and anonymously emailed Instagram to have them take the videos down under child pornography laws.  
_ _ I couldn't believe I had inadvertently dabbled in porn before I lost my virginity, but I guess it's been a strange year all around. _

“Okay, you're officially PG-13 again.” Sarah passed David’s phone back to him, he gave her a smile and a hug and swiped off the Instagram tab, he saw his home screen, it was a picture of Katherine.

“I guess I should change my background.”

“You could… or you could talk to her.”

_ New Year's Eve, a time for resolutions. My life was a mess, but… I could clean my room? That way at least one thing in my life wouldn't be a mess. _

And that’s what he decided, he had several cardboard boxes to sort out any clothing or books he didn’t want anymore, and surprisingly, he managed to make fairly decent progress. It was just him, a few boxes and a pair of headphones that blasted music into his ears.

“Yep, he's cleaning… It must be really bad.” Les said, Mayer and Sarah stood next to him, they all made a mental note to keep an eye on him for a while,

Mayer spoke up, “Can you guys hang out for a while?”

“Yeah, course.” Sarah replied, nodding at Les to follow her to the kitchen,

Mayer walked into David’s room and tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around and pulled his headphones off and let them hang around his neck, “Hey. Let's go for a drive.”

_\-- _❀_\--_

Mayer drove them to the diner, they found themselves a table and got just a drink each, water and a black coffee, “There it is, right there.” He nodded his head at the jukebox in the corner “Your mother and I used to come here all the time.”

“Really? I didn't know that.” David’s voice was soft, he hadn’t really spoken to anyone properly in a while seen as, his family at least, let him have some space, it was also strange talking about Esther to someone who wasn’t Katherine.

The man nodded, “She'd play this song, then as soon as it was over she'd play it again. Know what else she'd do? Get up and start dancing in the aisles, right by everyone eating. I was so embarrassed, but… you know, I was also in awe of her, too. I think back and I think, ‘Man, I should've been dancing with her.’” He dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, inside he had a photo of her, she was dancing and had this lazy but so genuine smile on her face, he held it out to David, “Look at this.”

He smiled, “Wow, this place has not changed at all.” 

“There's so much about her I should have told you and the others, but I haven't because talking about her makes me sad.”

“It's okay.”

“It's not okay. I've relied on you and Sarah too much, I know I have. You're 16. You don't have to be an adult yet. That's why I was so happy when I saw you and Katherine.”

David shook his head, “I don't want to talk about Katherine.”

Mayer put his hands up in defense and tucked his wallet back into his pocket, “Katherine who?”

He laughed, “Really?”

“I don't know what happened with you two, but I know how you opened up when she was around.  Not with us, 'cause you've always been like that with us, but to the world… Seeing you come alive like that, you remind me of her. Just don't hide that part of yourself, okay?”

“Dad…” He took a breath, “I really miss her.”

“I know you do.”

They both stayed silent for a few moments, “Can I borrow a quarter?”

“Yeah, sure,” He felt around in his pockets and eventually pulled one out, “Catch.”

“So you said she'd always play the song twice?”

“At least, usually till they'd kick us outta here.”

He nodded, “Cool.” David walked over to the jukebox and played the song, it was the song they played at her funeral, but it was a happy song, which is why she liked it so much.

_\-- _❀_\--_

“Well, like, I didn't hear anything about it, though, the Debate Society's New Year's Eve nitrous oxide scandal knocked it out of the top spot.” David managed to meet up with Crutchie so that they could walk to the lockers together, neither of them really liked walking around alone together but they made it work.

David nodded, “Okay, so that's good news, right? I'm officially back to being invisible.”

Katherine walked into him, she looked up at him with a few tears in her eyes, he placed his hands on her shoulders,“Hey… Whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey. What's going on?”

She kept her voice quiet, but it was still sour, angry, terrified even. “You didn't even say it wasn't true? You just let everyone think we had sex? I bet you're happy the video leaked.”

“You gonna do something about this?” Jack walked up to him and gave him a pat on the back, Katherine had disappeared into the crowd,

David began to panic, “I can’t- I can’t- I want to but-”

Darcy’s voice cut him off, “Hey, everyone, listen up. Not that it's anyone's business, but nothing happened in the hot tub. If I hear anybody talking about Katherine or that video, I'm gonna kick your asses! You understand?” Everyone knew that Darcy wasn’t capable of hurting anyone, physically anyways, but the effort was there, and that's what made David's stomach turn. It was like Darcy was trying to win Katherine back. David shouldn't care, but he did.

Jack gave him a glare, “Nice job, Jacobs!” he pulled David aside, “You know everytime Katherine steps a foot out of line, she gets complete and utter shit from Pulitzer.”

“How do you…?”

“I found her, she was cryin’ so I spoke to her…” Jack shook his head, “Anyways, go find her.”

David gave him a look and walked off into the crowd to find Katherine, she wasn’t difficult to spot because of her hair, but he found her.

She wasn't crying but she was lying on the grass with some earplugs in, eyes closed, like she was trying to escape from the world and its people. He sat beside her and tapped her shoulder, she opened her eyes to see who it was and pulled out her earphones, “Kath? Look, I am really sorry about everything. If I knew who did this…”

“I know who did it. So should you… I’ll just… talk to him later, okay?”

David shook his head, “No, I should go and talk to him.” Katherine raised her eyebrows but she didn't protest.

\---

“Um, hi... Personal space, much?” Darcy was in the bathroom, washing his hands, David walked in and stood next to him, as close as he could.

_ Take a deep breath, David. _

“I know you posted that video.”

Darcy shook his head and laughed, “Nope, wasn't me.  But just so you know, if you have sex in a public place, you've gotta deal with consequences.”

“It's bad enough if some random guy were to do this, but you know Katherine, and you know her father, he’s going to flip his shit.”

“Why do you think I said what I did in the halls? Like I said, I didn't do it. I'm glad someone did, though. Finally, everyone is gonna see who you really are.”

_ Breathe, David. _

He furrowed his eyebrows, “What are you talking about?”

“Katherine!” Darcy turned to face him and then continued, “She is not as confident as she pretends to be. I am not as tough as I pretend to be. And you, David Jacobs, you are not as innocent as you pretend to be because you kissed a girl I liked.”

“You guys were broken up!”

“No, before we even dated!”

“Middle school?” David raised his eyebrows,

“You knew I liked her and you kissed her.”

“It was Spin the Bottle, you psycho, and it was tongueless!”

“It wasn't tongueless to me!”

_ I always thought no one was paying attention to what I was doing, that the only drama in my life was in my head, but it turns out that I wasn't as invisible as I thought. _

_\-- _❀_\--_

Jack was on the sofa, David had invited him over to talk, he thought that by now he deserved an explanation “So Sarah left, huh?”

David was just grabbing them some water, he came in and sat beside Jack, “Yeah, this Sunday… Hey, thank you for coming over.”

“It’s no problem.”

“I feel like I owe you an explanation. See… It's like driving, okay? I can imagine myself doing it and it's fine, and then I get behind the wheel and completely freeze up, and I don't know what to do.”

“Okay... I don't follow.”

“Let me start over. You were the first boy I ever really liked. Everyone else, all the other letters, were born out of fantasy. But yours was based off of actually knowing you. I didn't realize how I felt about you until you became Sarah’s boyfriend. But over time, that feeling just faded away, and I missed my best friend. And it wasn't love.”

Jack nodded along, “Why didn't you just tell me that? I would have understood.”

“Well, I couldn't.” David shrugged, “I didn't know until Katherine.”

“Right, Katherine.”

“It was real in a different way. And I'm really sorry.”

“No reason to be sorry, it's like, I think I know where you're coming from. It's kind of how it was with Sarah and I. You know, minus all the fake stuff and everything else.”

“Did you stop loving Sarah after she broke up with you?”

“No. Not at first. At some point it changed, though. The longer she was gone, the more I understood why she ended it.”

“Do you feel the same way about Katherine?”

“I know you don't like her. C’mon you didn’t even stand up for her, Darcy did.”

“You know I can’t just… talk publicly on the spot, I would just be taking an open opportunity to embarrass myself.”

“Right, right, sorry… Look, if you miss her, why don't you just tell her?”

“I can't.”

“And why's that?

“Because if it wasn't real, I didn't lose anyone. But if I say that it was real, and she still doesn't want me…”

“Then at least you'll know. You've gotta tell people how you feel when you feel it. You can't sit in your room writing love letters you're never gonna send. Katherine wouldn't even be in your life if they hadn't gotten out in the first place.”

“Yeah, you definitely have a point.”

“I don't know, I'm just tired of writing love letters. It'd be nice to be receiving them.”

“Davey?” Les was at the bottom of the staircase, holding the same brown box from before, he began walking over towards them, “I have something for you. Don't kill me. It's just, you were always throwing those away, and I thought they were something you should keep.” Les gave David the box and he looked inside, inside were every single note, by the looks of it, that Katherine had given him, now that he looked at it, it looked like they all had writing on, now he was starting to feel bad, he didn’t do much more than draw a little heart or write ‘You look so pretty today’ or something those along the lines.

“You saved all these?” He glanced back at Les then picked a few out of the box and read them.

_ Davey, everyone was so impressed by your presentation in lit, but especially me. I love having a smarty pants fake boyfriend x _

_ It's so cool how we can talk to each other about real stuff x _

_ You looked so handsome today x  _

“Still think you haven't gotten a love letter?” Jack was reading them over David's shoulder, he smiled.

_\-- _❀_\--_

He wasn't sure what he was doing, but he had a plan and he was going to try and not chicken out. David found himself at the playing field, Katherine was watching Spot practice lacrosse with the rest of the team, he found her and sat next to her on the bleachers. “Oh, hey, Davey?” She looked up at him, a little confused,

“Hi. I have to tell you something.”

She nodded, “Okay.”

“I drove here.”

“Really?” She raised her eyebrows “Wow, congrats?”

“Thanks…”

“What's in your hand?” He had a small folded up piece of paper in his hand, the corner was just poking out from between his fingers,

“Oh, uh, nothing.”

“Oh, it's nothing?”

“I- um- okay uh-” He cut himself off and just held the piece of paper out in front of him for her to take, though, when she tried to take it, he just kept a firm grip on it.

“If you want me to read that, you need to give that to me.”

“I’ll just… I’ll just read it. Um… Can you turn around? Please.” Katherine nodded and stood up to turn around, "Wait... no sorry, I changed my mind... can you face me while I say this?" She turned back around and gave an encouraging smile. He took a breath and then unfolded the paper and began to read from it, “Dear Katherine, I need you to know that… I need you to know that I like you, Katherine Pulitzer. And not in a fake way. And so I guess that's all I came here to say.” He shoved the note into his pocket, turned on his heel and went to walk away, but Katherine’s voice stopped him,

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… Don't I get to say something?” He turned back around “The reason that I went to Darcy’s room that night, was to tell him that it's over, because… because I'm in love with you, Davey. Only you.” She went onto her tip-toes and kissed him, just gently, on the lips, it barely lasted a second but David was still as dazed and confused as ever.

“You're what?” Katherine just smiled, “Wait... How do we do this?” David asked,

“What do you mean?”

“What do you put into a contract for a real relationship?”

She snorted, “Nothing. We only had the other one, because you know, like I said, so we know what the boundaries are.” She took his hand in her own, “You just need to trust me.”

_ I'd always fantasized about falling in love in a field, but I just never thought it'd be the kind where you played lacrosse. _

David nodded, “Sounds simple enough.” Then leaned in again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well,, this is the end i guess! honestly,, i never thought i'd actually finish a fanfic (fully) but here we are! aaah sorry this is kasj idk i'm happy leave me alone. i'm also working on a little (probably kinda chunky) fantasy au sorta thing but that's all i'm going to say for now, but it also depends on whether i start writing another au or fic (i have 10 other ideas chilling on my list so uh- yeah)
> 
> thaaaank you for reading, comments and kudos are appreciated, have a good day

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated! Have a lovely day, my darling!


End file.
